


Where the Mockingbird Sings

by PastelMess



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alien Abduction, Aliens, Alternate Universe - No Band, Angst, Human Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, because IT'S MEEEEE, some of these tags are not as they seem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-24 12:03:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 41,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9725441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelMess/pseuds/PastelMess
Summary: "The Ohio Miracle," they called him.Josh was sixteen years old when he disappeared. Seven years later, he's found.Two thousand miles away from home.





	1. Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

  * For [marsakat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/marsakat/gifts).



> Hello! So this is one of those alien abduction things because I don't think we have enough of these tbh. This was very long work in progress inspired mostly by The OA and Black Mirror, both Netflix Originals I would highly recommend. (About half of this is strongly based off of the OA.) 
> 
> I do have this whole thing finished so I'll try and update daily. :)
> 
> And of course dedicated to my favourite Mars. <3

He was sixteen years old when he disappeared.

The boy was like everyone else really, except the fact that he was born blind. His parents were told from the start that raising a blind child would not be easy, but they loved him nonetheless. They took good care of him, and the boy felt like any other kid his age.

But he was lonely. In school, he sat in a classroom made especially for children with disabilities, and no one wanted to talk to him. Not even his siblings seemed to want to speak with him. He understood that he was different. He knew that. He just didn’t understand why it had to be him.

Even so, the boy tried to remain optimistic. He reminded himself that there were other people who had it way worse than him.

On the night of August 17th 2004, the boy went missing.

The police looked for any signs of break in, but it was almost as if the boy had disappeared out of thin air. All the doors were locked, windows shut, and the alarm showed no hiccups or anything worthy of interest. The only weird thing was that the boy’s bed was made, with his walking stick placed neatly on his pillow.

An investigation went on for several weeks, but the police department had nothing. No trails, no evidence, and no signs of the blind boy. It came to a close shortly after, and the heartbroken parents gave up all hope of ever seeing their eldest son again.

The town of Powell, Ohio, grieved over the abduction of one of their own, but they also panicked. Every family increased security, got alarm systems and better locks, while the police department went on high alert. Children no longer played out on the streets, but in their living rooms under the close supervision of their parents. No one wanted their child to follow the same fate as the blind boy.

Seven years passed before reports of a naked, unconscious man off a Californian beach flooded the Los Angeles Police Department. His hair was wild and tangled into giant knots to his shoulders and a large bushy beard covered his face, but the weirdest thing were the strange marks that covered his shoulders and back. He was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital and treated for dehydration, starvation, and for several lacerations that covered his body.

The hospital did the best they could to help the man, but they knew absolutely nothing about him. He wasn’t in their records, wasn’t in any police records, and he could barely bring himself to speak when he finally came out of unconsciousness.

“Sir?” a nurse was standing over him when he did wake up. He glanced around, blinking furiously, trying to figure out where he was. An IV was plunged into his skin, and from behind him came the soft _beep, beep, beep_ of his heart rate monitor. He gripped the covers of his bed in fright.

“Sir,” her gentle voice rang in his ears again. “How are you feeling?”

His vision stirred. The man pushed himself further up the bed and tried to figure out where he was, what was going on.

“Can you tell me your name?”

He groaned a little, and continued to rapidly blink. Colours blurred in front of his eyes, formed a person, and suddenly, there she was, a girl with fiery red hair and pursed lips. She looked young.

“Sir?”

“My... my name.” he continued to stare at the nurse. His name. He couldn’t remember his name, he couldn’t remember words, he couldn’t remember how to speak, only how to repeat...

She reached out to touch his hand, and the man immediately jerked away.

“NO!” he screamed, squeezing his eyes shut, scrambling in bed. Two other people came into the room, a doctor and another nurse, and they held him down as he continued to thrash against them.

Finally, _finally,_ he calmed down, relaxed, and his eyelids fluttered.

“That’s right sweetheart,” there was a different voice, a different nurse, and she was older. She touched the top of his hand, just like the other nurse had, but everything was okay. “Take some deep breaths. Everything is going to be okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated. “Okay.” she continued to stroke the top of his hand until he slipped back into unconsciousness.

The hospital staff didn’t know what to do. The man didn’t know his name, he could barely speak, and he was unrecognizable. They knew, whoever he was, that he had suffered through a lot of trauma. The police knew that too, and they had an APB sent out around the state. They needed to find out who this man was, and where he had come from.

The next morning, he awoke to the steady beep of his heart monitor, which was a bit comforting to him. His head flooded with memories, of stainless steel tables, and people, no, _things,_ constantly touching him, poking him, _stabbing him-_

“Sweetheart,” it was the older nurse, “how are you feeling?”

He couldn’t think of the words or how to say them. So instead he blinked and forced the blob of colours to turn into a person. A human. He started laughing. _A human, an actual human being!_

“Sweetheart?” she said again, stepping towards him, reaching out...

The man jerked away again. He shook his head, and she recoiled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-”

“Okay,” he said bluntly. He knew that word.

“Do you feel okay?”

“Okay,” he nodded.

“Do you know your name?”

He thought about it. He knew he had one, he knew those things didn’t call him by his name... “J-J-J...” he couldn’t do it, his brain hurt too much.

“It starts with a J?”

He nodded. He knew that for sure.

“John? Jeremy? Jack?”

Three firm shakes of his head. No, no, no. Not that.

“Okay. We’ll call you J for now, okay? Do you know your last name?” No, he couldn’t remember that.

“N-No,” he said. She nodded again.

“Okay J, I’m going to make sure you get some food and water into you. Is that okay?”

“Okay.” he agreed. He felt his eyelids drooping again. He was so tired lately, so very tired, he never got sleep, up, over, there.

“You can sleep sweetheart. You can sleep.” he nodded, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.

Two more days passed. The man slept the whole time. He could remember _everything_ now. He had been taken, stolen from his bedroom, and his world of blackness turned into bright flashes of silver-blue light. He couldn’t see what was touching him, but they grabbed him all over, touched him all over, and he spent every day naked, being poked, prodded, stabbed, hurt...

He woke up in a loud gasp of air. He knew his name. He remembered his name. _Joshua._

A nurse, not one he had seen before, poked her head in his room. “Sir?”

“Joshua,” he croaked, tears streaming down his face, “Joshua, Joshua, Joshua.”

“Is that your name?” she asked. He nodded.

“Joshua.” he thought hard about the words on his tongue, forming in his head. He knew how to speak, he just needed to try, needed to think, _think, THINK!_ “My name... Joshua.”

The nurse swallowed hard and left the room. “James, you’re gonna want to come in here.” Joshua blinked, tried to remember more about who he was. He couldn’t remember who he was, just where he went...

“Sir, can you tell me your name? Do you remember your name?”

“Joshua,” he repeated for the umpteeth time, and the doctor nodded. So much nodding, not enough doing, not enough _doing-_

“Joshua. Do you go by Josh?”

Yes, he goes by Josh. He remembered. “Y-Yes.”

“Do you know a last name? Place of birth? Are you from here?”

Josh wanted to answer all those questions, but he didn’t know if he could. He didn’t know his last name, or his place of birth, or where they even were. He tried speaking. “W-W-Whe-rre, eh,” he trailed off. It was too much work, his head hurt too much.

“Where are we? Is that what you’re trying to say?” A nod. “We’re in California, Josh. Los Angeles to be more specific. Are you from Los Angeles?”

Was he from California? He didn’t think so, he was much too pale for that. Josh reached up to feel his face and ran it along the length of his beard. How old was he?

His hair was long too, longer than he ever kept it before. That, he was sure of.

No, he couldn’t be from California. So he shook his head no. He remembered cold, some place where it was cold... but also green... the grass was green and grew long when no one cut it, that’s what his mother had told him. Josh groaned in frustration. He wished he could find the words to tell the doctor all of this.

Maybe he could write it down. All he needed was a pen, and some paper. Josh closed his eyes for a few seconds and thought about the words to say. Pen, all he needed to say was pen.

“P-p-pennn,” he grunted, causing the doctor to squint.

“A pen? You want a pen? Can you write stuff down?” Josh nodded, and the doctor told the nurse to go fetch a pen and a pad of paper. She came back very quickly and handed the items to Josh. He reached for the pen, only to stop halfway. He didn’t remember if he was left handed or right handed.

He tried his left hand first. The pen felt too big in his hand, so he switched it to his right, and clicked it. His hand shook as he lowered it to the paper and scribbled down what he remembered about where he lived. The doctor grabbed the pad and skimmed over Josh’s messy handwriting.

“They get snow here?” he looked towards Josh for affirmation. Josh nodded. “Okay, so that rules out a few states... Were there lakes? Any bodies of water? Do you remember a general location?

_Lake,_ Josh wrote. _Multiple Lakes._

“Amanda, call the police. We’re looking at the midwest, make sure they put out APB’s in all those states. Have them look at missing person reports, any records, anything at all. We may have a lead on this man’s identity.” When she left the room, the doctor turned back towards Josh. “You get some rest, okay? We’ll figure out who you are, I promise.”

Josh nodded, closed his eyes, and went to sleep.

He dreamed of a tree, a big, tall, towering tree, with only a few leaves left. Most covered the ground, and provided colour to a stainless steel floor. Behind it was a swirling sky of greens, and yellows, and blues, a sky that melted into galaxies upon galaxies with stars. Wind blew around him, ran through his hair, made him feel _so cold..._

_Everything is going to be okay. It’s all okay._

_Think Josh. Think. You know this, you know this, you know this..._

He woke up with blinding pain in his arm. Nurses burst into his room, upset with his frantic behavior, and all he could do was stare at his arm. The tree from his dream was on it, with all it’s swirling colors. He felt sick to his stomach. Had that always been there? It couldn’t have been, could it? No. No, it wasn’t right.

“Josh, take some long, deep breaths sweetheart. Long breaths. You’ve got this.” he felt an oxygen mask being placed over his mouth and breathed in harshly. He remembered more now, he remembered so much more.

He tore the mask off. “I know who I am, I know who I am!”

The nurse stepped back and blinked. “Doctor!”

He came running back in. His coat was crooked and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. Maybe he hadn’t. Most people could remember who they were.

“Joshua Dun,” he about shouted, scrambling to get out of bed, “My name is Joshua Dun, I’m from Columbus, Ohio, my parents are Laura and Bill, please can you-” he stumbled, twisting his arms in the plethora of wires tangled by his bedside, and the doctor helped him back to bed.

“I’ll make a call. Sara, give him some more medicine.” the nurse nodded her head and returned to Josh’s bedside. He began thrashing again, Josh didn’t want anyone near him, he wanted to go home, not to be hundreds of miles away!

“No, no don’t touch me!” he pulled away and tried to get up again. “I don’t need to rest, I need to get home-”

“Sir, you need to calm down. We’re going to contact the police-”

“Like HELL!” he tried climbing out of bed again, and two more nurses came into the room. The doctor helped hold him down as a mask was placed back over his mouth, and his muscles went slack.

“That’s right Josh, everything is okay,” it was that nurse that called him sweetheart. He liked her. Josh’s vision stirred, he could see two of every person in the room. “You’re okay. That’s right, go to sleep, we’ll all be here in the morning.”

He nodded weakly, closed his eyes, and slept.

-

On the other side of the United States, the Columbus police department was a bit confused when they received a call from Gateway Hospital in Los Angeles, California. They had just barely received the APB the California state division released, and now a call? What could ever be the problem?

The Chief of Police, a fierce, tall woman named Olivia Jacobs, answered the call. Her eyes widened as the doctor, called James, explained that they had a man at the hospital who was found washed up on a beach claiming he lived in Columbus.

“What’s his name?”

“Joshua Dun,” he said, and immediately she sent her team to pull out the missing child’s case. Everyone in the Columbus area knew about the blind boy that got abducted from his home. She quickly skimmed over all the information they had on him and asked,

“Is he blind?”

“No.”

That couldn’t be right. “Are you sure?”

“I’m one hundred percent sure. He’s older, with long, dark brown hair and a beard, says his parents are Laura and Bill Dun.”

Those were definitely his parents. How many Joshua Dun’s could live in Columbus and have parents with the same names? The Chief of Police decided to take a shot. “I’ll contact the man’s parents; Dun has been missing for seven years.”

“Oh my,” whispered Dr. James. The two exchanged some more information before Jacobs hung up the phone and sent her team out to locate the Dun family.

They had work to do.

-

Upon receiving the phone call that their oldest son was alive, Mrs. Dun burst into tears, and they arranged to get on the next flight to Los Angeles. She couldn’t stop shaking; the idea of seeing her eldest son after _seven_ years seemed unbelievable. She wondered what he’d look like, how’d he’d act, what had happened to him. She knew he wouldn’t be the same, but she hoped things could go back to normal.

Josh was sitting in bed when two unfamiliar people pushed past Dr. James to enter his room. “Who are these people?” he asked.

The woman had tears rolling down her cheeks as she made her way to the hospital bed and sat down. Josh stared, wondering why she was here, what she was doing, until she took his hand and cupped it around her jaw. He was gentle, sliding his hand up to touch her ears, the bridge of her nose, her lips, until he was sobbing and clutching his mother’s face in his hands. She hugged him tightly, her face buried in his neck, rubbing his back in small circles as he cried and cried and cried.

Back at the door, Dr. James looked up at Mr. Dun. “He was blind when he went missing, wasn’t he?”

“Yes,” he whispered. He too moved to sit next to his son, and the three buried themselves in a group hug for half an hour. For _seven years_ he had not felt the touch of another human being, for his whole life he had never seen his mother and father’s face; his mother was beautiful, she was absolutely _beautiful._

His parents didn’t ask any questions, and for that, he was thankful. He had no idea how he would have answered all their questions when he himself barely knew anything.

They stayed with him the whole day, and the day after, and the day after that.

“As long as you need,” his mother whispered, holding his hand. Only she could touch him, he trusted her.

Josh stayed in the hospital for several weeks. A barber came in and cut his hair, helped him shave, and Josh stared at himself in the mirror for an hour after that. He had never seen his own face once, not _once._

His mother came into the bathroom about twenty minutes after the barber left. She reached out to touch Josh’s shoulder, who jumped and hit his hip on the sink. He stared at her, in fear, with big, wide eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said, staring. Josh swallowed and turned back around to look at himself in the mirror.

“You can touch me,” he murmured, watching her through the mirror as she stepped closer to him. His mother didn’t touch him this time.

“I told you were my beautiful little boy.” her eyes were wet with tears.

“My hair is brown.” he laughed, a smile rising to his face. “My eyes are brown.”

“They are,” she laughed too, and Josh let her hug him.

Even though he was sure they had plenty of their own questions, his parents let him ask his own.

“What year is it?”

“2011.” his father looked hopeful. Josh hoped he could be hopeful too.

“How long was I gone?”

“Seven years,” his mother said softly.

“How... how old am I?”

“Twenty-four.” Josh blinked. He was twenty-four years old. The last time he had touched another human being had been _seven years ago._

He stopped asking questions after that.

One day, two men wearing black suits came into his hospital room. They explained that they were FBI agents investigating Josh’s case.

Both men gave names, but Josh didn’t listen. They stared at him like he was nothing more than an object. He supposed he was. They were only here for information after all, not to ask him how he was.

“Do you have any information on your captor?” One of the men had dark skin and a mustache. He showed no emotion and made Josh very uncomfortable. The things that had touched him all over, it had been most dark, but when he could catch glimpses, their faces had always been blurred, and showed no human emotions; it made sense, because they weren’t human.

“I uhm,” he looked between his parents, who ushered him to continue, “I don’t know what they looked like-”

“They?” asked the second agent. He was paler than pale, with saggy skin and a receding hairline. “Were there multiple people?”

“Yes,” he nodded, “They looked like you and I, but I couldn’t see their faces-”

“What do you mean by that?” questioned the first. “They looked like you and I?”

“They looked human,” Josh said bluntly, not understanding why they didn’t get that. Both men shared a look.

“Mr. Dun, are you saying that your captors were _not_ human?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you remember where they took you? Were you in a car, a plane-”

“A plane I think. It felt like we were flying...” Josh raked through his thoughts all those years ago and tried to remember what had happened. “I couldn’t see, everything was black.”

Number two scribbled that down in a notebook. “You were blind at the time of your kidnapping, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” Josh nodded, “I was. I couldn’t see much, but sometimes, I’d see colours.” He gestured to his arm. “This is what I saw.”

The agents leaned forward to study the tree tattooed on Josh’s arm. They looked at him coldly. “Sir, did you get this tattooed?”

“No, it appeared on my arm,” he said, void of any sarcasm. Number two scribbled some more notes.

“Your surroundings, what did they feel like?”

“Cold, like everything was made of metal. They, they touched me all over...” Josh trailed off and looked at his hands.

“How did you escape? You were found naked on a beach-”

“I think that’s enough for today.” Josh’s father stood up from the bed and stared at the agents with a calm and collected glare. “My son should get some rest.”

Number one forced a smile. “Thank you for your time Joshua. Call us when you want to speak again, you have our number.” The two stood up, collected their things, and walked out the door. Mr. Dun sat back down, and Mrs. Dun reached for her son’s hand.

“Are you okay, baby?”

“I’m okay,” he assured his parents. He could feel their eyes on his tattooed arm, so he held it up so they could see it better. The sleeve stopped at his wrist and went as high up as his shoulder where a bright sun sat with galaxies twinkling behind it. “I didn’t get this tattooed,” he promised. “You believe me, right?”

A few seconds passed before his mother managed a lopsided smile. “Of course we believe you.”

“I’m going to go get a coffee,” muttered his father as he stood up swiftly and walked out of the room. Josh stared at the open door until golden light danced at the corners of his eyes. It was very obvious his parents didn’t believe him.

When Josh turned back to look at his mother, she was staring at him, with tears rolling down her cheeks. She reached out to touch his cheek, and he squeezed his eyes shut as her cold fingers inched their way to his neck, his shoulders, and to his spine. He knew she was staring at the numerous amount of scars and weird marks that covered the entirety of his back. It must have looked like he had been whipped, but he knew that wasn’t the case. There were marks all over his body, places where he had been cut and injected with... _stuff_ over and over and over again.

“Honey?” his mother’s voice was barely over a whisper, and was fragile like glass. If she went any higher, she would crack. “How did you get your sight back?”

“I don’t know.” that was the truth. He didn’t know.

-

The hospital recommended Josh stay at least a month more, but Josh was more than ready to go home, and besides, they had left Jordan there all by himself. They made sure Josh was okay with going home.

“Are you sure sweetheart? We have to fly home.”

He nodded. “I promise I’ll be okay. I want to see everyone.”

His mother smiled. “They want to see you too sweetheart.”

So, with a wad of paperwork and a full stomach, the three boarded a plane back to Columbus, Ohio. Josh sat in between his parents holding his mother’s hand, trying his hardest not to nod off. He had been really tired lately.

“You can sleep Josh,” she told him, “Your father and I will be right here the whole time, okay?”

He nodded, rested his head on his mother’s shoulder, and fell asleep almost instantly. A knot formed in his stomach as he dreamed of his time away, locked in darkness with a hundred pairs of hands pulling him apart. His fingers would snap, he would scream, and the pain would disappear, almost as if there was an off switch. This would happen every day; the things hurting him must have not understood how pain worked. He didn’t understand what had happened up there. He didn’t know how they had gifted him with sight, or painted his dreams on his arm. Even the marks on his back looked like some weird foreign language. Maybe they were ancient hieroglyphics of some sort. Maybe they were trying to figure out more about the human race, and they had been using him as a canvas. Maybe they hadn’t meant to hurt him, maybe he was there to help them _understand-_

“Joshua? Baby, we’re here.” his mother shook him awake. Josh rubbed at his face and stood up, staying close to his parents as his father grabbed their carryons and they got off the plane. His father led them to the car, keeping Josh protectively behind him, shielding him from strangers. Josh pulled the sleeves of his hoodie over his hands. Mr. Dun held open the back door of the car as his son and his wife climbed in.

“It’ll be about a half hour drive back,” he explained as Josh buckled his seatbelt and reached back for his mother’s hand, “when we get back, we’ll have to hurry inside.”

“Why?” Josh’s face scrunched in confusion.

“People are waiting for you.”

Josh looked out the window the entire ride back home. Trees, buildings, the sky, the _sun,_ all things he had never seen his entire life. The sky was blue, _blue._ Josh loved blue.

Skyscrapers turned into suburban homes as they left Columbus and entered smaller towns. He felt sicker by the second just thinking about his father’s words. _People are waiting for you._ He didn’t want to be around strangers. He wanted his family only.

“Is Jordan at home?” he asked, trying to forget about the strangers.

“Yes baby, and Abby and Ashley are coming back home too. They’ve been away at college and left soon as we said we were heading home.”

He chuckled a little. Josh was going to get to see his sibling’s _faces._

“Momma?”

“Yes Josh?”

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” he shifted his whole body to look into his mother’s watering eyes. She smiled and once again reached out to touch his cheek with her knuckle.

“You’re so sweet.”

“I mean it. I always knew you were beautiful,” he paused to reach out and touch her face. That was comfort for him. He remembered the shape of his mother’s face like the back of his hand. “But I can see now momma, and I mean it.”

She kept smiling, and pressed a kiss to his hand.

The second they pulled into their neighborhood, their car was swallowed by a crowd. People held signs, tried to see inside the car, waved, shouted. Josh sank farther into his seat and let his seat belt slide over his head.

“Mom,” he whispered, and she squeezed his hand.

“I’m here.”

The closer they got to the house, the denser the crowd seemed to become. Now instead of townspeople, there were cameras, news reporters, journalists, all shouting and yelling questions. Josh closed his eyes; his head pounded against his skull, he felt so sick-

Mr. Dun honked the horn loudly. “GET OUT OF THE WAY!”

Of course, no one listened. So he continued moving at the pace of a snail until he could turn into the driveway. Josh sank lower.

“Honey, what do we do?” Mrs. Dun asked her husband. She was worried and frustrated, but tried to remain calm for the sake of her son.

“Grab the blanket in the trunk,” he demanded, undoing his seatbelt so he could turn around. Cameras flashed outside the car, in his face, and sweat beaded on his forehead. _Everything was black, Josh couldn’t see anything besides silver flashes..._

“Can you put your hood up sweetie?” A nod. She helped him, and then slid the throw blanket over his head. He could see through the stitching where little spots of light shone through. His mother tightened her grip on his arm. “Are you ready?”

“Ready.” The car door was thrown open, and Josh was swarmed.

“Josh, what can you tell us about your experiences?”

“Josh, what happened when you were gone?”

“How did you get your sight back?”

“Can we take a picture of you?”

Josh pushed out of his mother’s grasp the last three yards and tossed himself lamely through the front door. He slipped trying to take his shoes off and laid on the carpet dry heaving, watching the ceiling above him swirl as he gripped the carpet between his fingers. _Home._ He was home.

“Josh?” he’d recognize that voice anywhere. Josh forced himself to sit up and a giant smile crossed his face as his younger brother made his way towards him. His hair was dark and neatly styled, his face masked in concern. Josh felt like fainting. He grabbed hold of Jordan’s arm and slid his hands up to cup his face, just as he had done with his mother. Laughter turned into giant, heavy sobs as he pulled Jordan in for a hug and squeezed him as hard as he could.

Jordan was crying too. “I thought I’d never see you again. We thought you were dead, Josh, I love you so much-”

“I love you too Jordan, I love you too.” he pulled away, just to push hair off his brother’s forehead, and laughed again. “Jordan, you’re so _beautiful-”_

“Josh, can you really see me?”

“I can!”

Jordan was laughing now too. He hugged Josh again, right as the front door opened just enough for his parents to sneak through and it slammed shut loudly. Mr. Dun locked the door and went to shut all the blinds while Mrs. Dun wandered into the kitchen to do the same.

“Jordan, go upstairs and make sure all the blinds are shut.”

“Yes ma’am.” he unlatched himself from Josh’s arms and pushed himself off the carpet. “I’ll be back Josh, I promise.”

Josh nodded, watched him walk upstairs, the stairs that he had never _seen_ before, only felt, as his walking stick bumped against every rung, as he held onto the railing with the fear he’d tumble and kill himself.

He closed his eyes and tried to block out the sound of the crowd outside his home. He thought about his time at the hospital. They asked him so many questions. _Have you walked at all over these past seven years? No,_ he said. _How can you walk now? I don’t know,_ he said. He knew nothing about his release. Why had they released him? Why could he walk, and talk, and most importantly, _see?_

“Josh? Are you hungry?” He opened his eyes. His mother pointed towards the kitchen, and he glanced back towards the window. He had moved off the carpet since he fell. “They aren’t going to leave for awhile. It’s best to just ignore them.”

“Okay,” he replied, using the window sill to pull himself off the ground. He wobbled a little bit, let his bare toes scrunch in the carpet before he followed his mother into the kitchen. She helped him into a seat and busied herself in the kitchen.

“Would you like a turkey and cheese sandwich? I knew you loved those when you were little.”

“I did, didn’t I?” he thought about the last time he had ate a sandwich. “I haven’t eaten a sandwich in seven years.”

She choked a little bit, but forced a smile. “I’ll make you one. You can have some Coke too.”

“Thank you Momma.” he looked around the kitchen, at the fridge, stove, the cabinets, and the walls. He grinned ear to ear. “The walls are yellow.”

“Yeah baby, they are.”

After he ate, Josh laid down on the couch and crossed his arms across his chest. Nothing made sense to him. How could he be perfectly healthy after being stagnant for so long? How could his heart still pump blood through his body, how did he know how to walk, why wasn’t his skin flaccid and gross? Did they have him exercise? Why couldn’t he remember?

All he could recall was silver blue light and hands grabbing at his body. He didn’t remember any of the experiments they performed on him. Nothing was lining up. Maybe, it would come to him one night, as everything else had.

Josh rolled off the couch and hit the floor with a loud _thud._ He buried his head in his arms and laid there. He was frustrated, and confused, and so tired. There were still people outside; he could hear them shouting, asking if he could come out and take pictures, if they could interview him. “The Ohio Miracle,” they called him.

Abby and Ashley rang the house’s landline. Josh could hear his mother speaking in hushed tones in the kitchen. “There are too many people outside,” they said, “we can’t get to the house without getting bombarded.”

“Park down the street behind our house and cut through the backyard.”

“There’s people back there too.”

Josh screamed bloody murder. He couldn’t take this anymore. Even when his mother wrapped her arms around him and told him he was going to be okay, he still screamed.


	2. Miracle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josh is on a quest to find some answers, which is proven to be very difficult with his parents constantly breathing down his neck. Luckily a familiar face offers to help.

News spread fast that the blind boy that had gone missing the summer of ‘04 had been found and was being brought back home. Every news network in the country was covering the story; it was impossible to miss.

Tyler had gone to high school with Joshua Dun. He never knew the kid very well, nor did he speak to him daily, but he knew Josh was an overall alright person. He was always so cheerful, and Tyler never understood why. The kid was blind, how could he be so happy?

He had spent a lot of his free time in the resource room helping out the aides. At one point Tyler had wanted to work in special education. These kids didn’t let their abilities stop them and that was what he loved so much. He had only spoken to Josh a few times through high school, and when he disappeared, stolen from his own home, Tyler wished he had talked to him more. He felt guilty. Maybe the kid hadn’t been kidnapped, but went for a walk and drowned because he couldn’t see the water. Maybe he never had been happy, but was sinking into depression and killed himself. Either way, Tyler felt horrible and built the next seven years of his life on “what if’s.”  _ What if _ he had invited Josh over?  _ What if _ he had talked to him daily?  _ What if  _ Tyler did something  _ more? _

Tyler had tried the college thing for a little while, but it hadn’t been for him, and he abandoned his education major to become a songwriter. He wasn’t a very good one, nor was he a successful one, but he was one nonetheless. His parents weren’t very happy with him and his relationship with his parents over the years became quite strained. He had been off in Michigan looking for some possible apartment listings when he got the call that the “kidnapped blind kid” had been found. Immediately Tyler climbed in his car and drove back to Columbus. He knew the only reason he was so intent on seeing Josh again was because of all the “what if’s” he lost himself in. He wanted to make himself feel better about his relationship with Josh. Tyler didn’t know how he was going to do it, all he knew was that he  _ needed  _ to make things well again.

He hadn’t even realized he lived down the street from Josh until he was driving past the swarm of people in the Dun’s front yard. His eyes were wide and he couldn’t help but look out the window. He had to slam on his breaks to avoid hitting people and honked several times before he could pull into his driveway. Tyler grabbed his backpack out of the passenger seat and paused to look at the Dun house. It was practically across the street.

His heart sank. Josh had been even closer than he thought, and he had never known. He had never even taken the time  _ to  _ know.

Tyler looked between his house and Josh’s before crossing the street to join the crowd. He shoved past people, one handing gripping the strap of his backpack as he made his way up front.

“What’s going on?” he asked one of the journalists scribbling in a notebook. The woman looked up at him and grinned.

“Joshua Dun is home. And he’s not blind anymore.”

“He’s not... blind anymore?” How was that possible?

“He’s a miracle. Do you know him? Can you get us in?”

“What?” Could these people really not respect this boy and his family? He had been missing for  _ seven years,  _ the least they could do was give him a day to himself! “No, I don’t, I don’t know him.”

“Really?”

“I mean, I went to high school with him-” Tyler froze when he noticed the woman was writing everything down. He knew perfectly well that anything he said could be twisted. “No, I don’t know him.” Tyler turned back around and pushed back through the crowd, the journalist’s shouts echoing in his ears.

-

A week passed since Josh’s first day back home. He was absolutely exhausted, waking up almost nightly due to night terrors. He’d scream and scream and his mother would rush in and hold him until he stopped shaking. Some nights he’d drag himself into the bathroom and puke until he had nothing left inside of him. Eating became a difficult task, talking became even harder, even when his sisters would come into his room and try.

They were gorgeous, he learned. Both had hair the colour of autumn leaves and he hugged them until he could hug no longer. He ran his fingers over their faces and cried with them. They wanted to know how he could see now. Josh told them he had no idea.

Abby and Ashley only stayed for a few days, because they had classes they had to get to. They told him they’d visit really soon.

Jordan was a senior in high school, so that left Josh to spend the days lounging on his bedroom floor. He liked the feel of the carpet between his fingers and toes because it was familiar. He  _ knew _ the feeling of his carpet.

Josh hadn’t learned anything new about what happened to him. Sometimes his mother would go to ask questions and would stop herself. He sighed. He wished he could talk to her, he really did, but he knew what he said would be unbelievable.

There was one afternoon when Josh eyed the computer across the room and padded over to it. He slid into the chair and tried to pull up a browser. Maybe he could find some information out if he did some research.

_ You are not connected to the internet. _

Josh sighed. Of course. Maybe there was a password somewhere. So he headed downstairs and rummaged through drawers.

“Josh?” He froze, slowly pulled his hand out from the junk drawer, and looked into his mother’s sad eyes. “Josh sweetie, what are you looking for?”

“Can I have the wifi password?”

She sighed. Josh watched her tiptoe over to the desk and retrieve the dull yellow hospital papers. “The hospital told us to limit your media use. They’re worried about trauma is all. But unfortunately that means no computer and no television.”

Josh bit his tongue. That wasn’t fair.

She continued. “They also told us to take your door off, but I think that’s a little extreme. You deserve some privacy.”

“I’m okay mom, honestly, I just need to look up-”

“Josh.” her voice was sterner this time. “I know you’re frustrated, and upset, and trying to figure things out, but you went through a lot sweetheart, and we need to be careful that you don’t do anything to hurt yourself. Look at you, you’re already having trouble sleeping and you wake up every night screaming.” Josh’s mother was exhausted, he could see that. Her eyes had dark purple bags under them that he could see all the way across the kitchen. “We just need to take things slow. You aren’t ready to talk, and until then, you’re unpredictable. Jordan said he saw you with a knife.”

Josh pushed his foot into the tiled floor guiltily. He was only holding it, trying to remember how they had pushed it into him-

“We can’t rush into normal life.”

“I want to go outside,” he demanded. “If you won’t let me go online, at least let me get some fresh air. I haven’t been outside in seven years.”

His mother was crying silently now. She sniffed and wiped her tears. “Right. I’ll go with you.”

“No, I want to be alone.”

“Josh, you know we can’t let you do that.”

He dug his nails into the bottom of his hand. Harder, harder, harder... until blood was dripping down his palm and staining the white tile red. He stood there, shaking, unable to move. His mother said nothing as she stepped closer to him. Her movements were slow and soft so she wouldn’t upset him, and she made sure he could see her hand as she reached out to hold his arm. Carefully, Mrs. Dun pulled his fingers away from his palm and led him to the sink to clean his wound. She patted it with a paper towel and retrieved a bandaid from their first aid kit.

“Let’s go for a walk.”

“Okay,” Josh agreed. She helped him put on his jacket, and they began their walk down the street. Most of the people from the first day had left, but so far there had been a few journalists and reporters that had made their way back to his front porch. He felt like everyone was watching him from their windows as he walked, wondering what he would do next. Josh had his hands shoved in his pockets and stood a good distance away from his mother.

“The FBI called this morning while you were asleep. They wanted to know if you could answer some more questions.”

“I don’t want to.” he looked over at a kid mowing his front lawn. His hair fell in his face and he had headphones in his ears. The boy was also shirtless, revealing some very interesting tattoos. Josh squinted. Why did he feel like he knew that boy?

“They think it would be good for you to talk about what happened. If you tell them, you could stop those heinous men from hurting anyone else.”

“They weren’t men. They weren’t anything.” the boy stopped the lawn mower to change the song. He looked up, his eyes meeting Josh’s for a split second before Josh looked away with blush burning his cheeks.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You won’t believe me,” Josh muttered. “You didn’t even believe me about the tattoo on my arm.”

“I’m sure you’re very traumatized Josh, and that means you might be making some things up. Are you sure the men that took you didn’t tattoo that on your arm?”

“They weren’t men,” he muttered again with more force. Josh stopped walking to look at a large tree with different coloured leaves. He had never seen autumn before. “They weren’t human.”

“Baby, I understand you’re upset-”

“You don’t believe me. End of discussion.”

“If you could just tell those nice agents what happened, they’ll stop bothering you.”

“They won’t believe me either.”

“Tell them the truth, Josh.”

“I am TELLING THE TRUTH!” He screamed loudly, squeezing his eyes shut. Hands tugged on his hair and almost as if the tree felt sympathetic for Josh’s anger, its branches sagged towards the ground and all its leaves surrounded him in a semi circle. His mother took a few steps back and stared at him in fear. 

When he noticed all the leaves around him, Josh looked up at his mother before he took off running down the street. He could hear her calling after him, but he didn’t care.

Josh didn’t know where he was. He had grown up in this neighborhood and had never seen it once. He was going to get lost and he didn’t even care, he just ran until his lungs felt ready to collapse and he fell to his knees.

Josh sobbed. He was so tired of all the people, all the talking, all the questions. He didn’t even know the answers to his  _ own _ questions. Josh rubbed at his eyes and willed himself to calm down. Finally for once, he was alone, without anyone breathing down his neck. This was what he needed. Those  _ things, _ whatever they were, had never left him alone. Day and night did they hover around him, and Josh didn’t need sight to know that.

His feet had taken him to a creek at the edge of the neighborhood. It was full of trash and leaves, some parts deeper than the others. Josh picked up a stone and tossed it into the water, smiling a bit as it made a splash. Water had been something that made him comfortable, because it was the only thing that could surround him besides darkness.

Two more rocks made splashes. Josh pulled his knees to his chest and reached for another when he sliced his hand on a decaying branch. He inhaled sharply, watching blood start to trickle down his wrist. Great, just great. _Just what I needed,_ he thought as he picked at the band-aid already laid across his palm.

Silver-blue light danced behind his eyelids when he blinked. He remembered screaming as they cut him open and watched his blood ooze out onto stainless steel countertops...

Could he see up there?

Josh looked towards the creek, where the water had risen and stretched like clay. He tilted his head in confusion as it expanded, breaking off from the creek into tiny bubbles that floated up in the air. He reached forward with his injured hand, stretched forward for one of the bubbles...

When a stick cracked behind him.

All the water immediately toppled back into its source and Josh spun around in horror. It was that boy he had seen mowing his lawn, except now he had a sweatshirt on. He looked at Josh nervously, who continued to stare at him in fright. If that boy had seen that Josh had been doing...  _ something, _ with that water, how was he supposed to explain that?

“Were... were you controlling water?” he took a step forward, causing Josh to scoot backwards. His hands sunk into soft mud underneath cold water. The boy froze. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I don’t know,” Josh replied, scooting back farther. “I’ve never done that before.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone,” he said. “I live across the street. Your mom is pretty frantic. I said I help her find you.”

“I’m not going back. I’m nothing but a burden.” goosebumps ran down Josh’s arms as he sank his fingers further into the mud. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the water defying gravity once more. How was he doing that?

The boy seemed to notice too. He took another step forward. “Do you remember me Josh? We went to school together.”

“I couldn’t see,” Josh whispered.

“My name is Tyler, Tyler Joseph? I helped out in the resource room. We used to talk about music, do you remember that?”

He started to cry. Josh remembered Tyler. Tyler had been one of the only normal kids at school that ever talked to him. “I-I-I recognized you, mowing your lawn. But I never saw what you looked like.” he laughed out loud and brought his hands out of the water to grab at the sides of his hair. “You lived across the street from me and only talked to me at school.”

“I didn’t know,” Tyler claimed. “Please believe me.”

“I believe you.” he heard a splash as all the water sank back into the creek. “Do you think you could help me?”

“With what?”

“They did  _ something _ to me. That’s why I can see now, why that’s happening,” he pointed to the creek behind him, “and why I now have a giant tree tattooed on my arm.” Josh watched Tyler warily as pushed himself off the ground and tossed his sweatshirt to the side. He figured Tyler might leave, but the boy remained solid and unmoving like marble.

Tyler’s eyes widened when Josh finally managed to get his long sleeved shirt off. No one had seen him shirtless besides his doctors; not even his parents had been allowed to see the monstrosity that was his torso. His back and stomach had been used for the usual injection sites and whatever hieroglyphics they were writing on him. Josh didn’t know what he was trusting a kid he had talked to on rare occasions in high school. He realized he never got to finish high school.

“You didn’t... are you saying you didn’t go get that done at a shop?” Tyler scoffed. “That’s some damn good work.”

“No,” Josh said forcefully. “They put it there. I dream about this tree every night, and every colour on my arm is there. I think this is where they had me.”

“Josh, who are ‘they?’”

“The aliens,” he replied, reaching back for his shirt. Tyler continued to stare at him, his eyes locked on his mutilated stomach. Josh had never been “fat,” per say, but he hadn’t ever been buff. Now he was the fittest he had ever been. It was the exact opposite he expected to happen.

Tyler blinked, but said nothing about Josh’s accusations. “Did they do that to you? All those... scars?”

Josh murmured a muffled “yes,” as his shirt slid over his head and he tugged it back down his torso. He wiped all the dirt and leaves off his jacket and strung it over his arm. “Tyler, you can’t take me back to my mom.”

“She’s pretty worried, don’t you think you should let her know you’re okay?”

He shook his head. “Do you have internet at your house?”

“Yes?”

“I need to use it.” he began making his way up the bank back towards the subdivision when Tyler reached out for his arm. Josh jumped, his back hitting a tree as Tyler was knocked a good seven feet away from him. He groaned in pain as Josh began hyperventilating.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know how I did that!” Josh pulled his hood over his head and sank to the dirt once more. He started dry heaving as Tyler made his way back over, rubbing the back of his head.

“It’s okay, I shouldn’t have touched you.” he cleared his throat. “Did... did they touched you a lot?”

“A whole lot,” Josh gasped. Tyler sat down in front of him.

“Josh, you’re having a panic attack. Put your head in between your knees, just like this, okay?” Tyler brought his knees up to his chest and moved his head forward so it rested just below his kneecaps. “Breath in through your mouth and count to ten, and then exhale out with ten. C’mon now, I’ll do it with you.”

Tyler counted as Josh followed his instructions. He squeezed his eyes shut and once again blocked out the outside world, only listening to Tyler’s soothing voice. He remembered Tyler’s voice now. Tyler would sing for him sometimes and Josh would feel the happiest he ever felt.

When his heart was beating like normal, he shifted his position so he was sitting criss cross and cracked an eyelid open. Tyler was watching him with so much care on his face Josh felt even more guilty for hurting him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Tyler smiled.

“You did it Josh. You’re okay.”

“I’m sorry I bothered you.” Josh sniffed and used the tree to hoist himself to his feet. When he turned to leave, Tyler called his name.

“Josh.” he stopped. “You didn’t bother me. I want to make sure you’re doing okay.”

“I’m fine. I need internet so I can do research, so I can figure out what those things did to me-”

“You can use my computer, but let’s do it some other time. It’s getting late and you should go take some painkillers.”

“You believe me, don’t you Tyler? I’m not crazy, I promise. All the adults, they think I’m crazy.” Josh chuckled. “I guess I’m an adult now, huh?”

“I don’t think you’re making anything up. I think you really believe it.”

He relaxed. Finally, someone believed him! 

Leaves crunched under Tyler’s feet as he made his way closer to Josh until he was standing parallel to him. “Can I take you home?”

“Yes. Only if you promise not to tell anyone what we’re doing and what I’m telling you.”

“Okay, I won’t tell anyone.”

“No, you have to promise.” he shot Tyler a look. With a sigh, Tyler stuck his pinky out.

“I pinky promise I won’t tell anyone.”

Josh stared at his pinky finger for a few seconds, debating whether or not he wanted to touch the other boy. Touching was hard for him. He wanted to trust Tyler, but he wasn’t sure if he could. He never really knew him very well, but Tyler had been different. He  _ recognized  _ Tyler without ever seeing him. Maybe this would be good for him. He needed someone to confide in besides his parents, someone that would believe he was telling the truth.

Finally, Josh succumbed and linked pinkies with Tyler. They stayed rooted to the ground for another few seconds until Josh pulled his hand away.

“Let’s get you home,” murmured Tyler as he led Josh out of the woods and back into the sub division.

-

Josh’s parents were furious with him.

He sat curled up in the corner of his bed, fuming as he watched his father detach the door from his room. His mother was downstairs, away from all of this, because she couldn’t deal with it.

“I know you’re upset, but this is for your own safety,” he told Josh, sticking the screwdriver between his teeth so he could use both his hands to yank on the door. It tore of its hinges, and Mr. Dun rested it against the wall. He looked at his son one more time before gathering all his tools and scattering down the stairs.

Josh screamed, “I HATE YOU!” before he turned into a whirlwind and destroyed his room. Books were shoved to the floor, he knocked his dresser over and ripped clothes out of his closet. Josh was just about to flip his mattress off the bed frame when he noticed the light bulb flickering above him. He stared curiously, breathing heavily as his hands pushed into the foam.

The light bulb shattered right before his very eyes, plunging the room into darkness. Josh sank to his knees and tugged on his hair, letting heavy sobs shake his whole body. He felt so alone. He didn’t know who he was, his parents feared him, and he didn’t know what to do to make everything right.

“Joshua? Joshua!” he could hear his mother pounding up the stairs, his father’s loud voice booming after her, telling her to “let him be.” Josh was so glad she didn’t listen.

Mrs. Dun pulled her son into a hug and held him tightly, allowing him to cry into her shoulder. She stroked his hair. “It’s okay baby, I’m here, I’m right here. You’re gonna be okay.”

Josh slept on the floor of Jordan’s room that night.

The next morning, long after Jordan had left for school, Josh picked himself off of the floor and padded down the stairs for breakfast. He hoped his mother had made him something.

Instead, Josh found himself walking right into a meeting with those same FBI agents that had interrogated him in the hospital. He froze.

“Come on baby,” his mother patted the spot on the couch between her and his father, “these nice men have a few more questions to ask you.”

_ I don’t want to, _ Josh wanted to say, but he sat down between his parents anyway and looked down at the carpet.

“It’s good to see you’re doing better Joshua,” said the older agent. “We won’t take too much of your time.”

“Now last time we spoke,” began number one, “your story wasn’t quite matching up. You said you had descriptions of what these people looked like?”

Josh frowned. “Well, sort of-”

“How? You were blind.”

His muscles tensed. This was where things would get difficult. “All I know was at first, I couldn’t see. Everything was black, like it had been my entire life. Sometimes though, I’d see glimpses of bodies moving around me. I’d see colours.”

“Have you ever been able to see colour before?”

“No,” Josh whispered.

“Were there other people with you? People that might have been victims?”

“No, it was only me.” he folded his hands in his lap and raised his eyes high enough to watch number two scribble down some more notes.

“How did you get your sight?”

“I don’t know.”

“Around what time were you able to catch a look at your captors?”

“I don’t know,” Josh repeated. The room felt like it was closing in on him. “I don’t know, I don’t remember much, just, they looked like blobs-”

“Could you catch a gender?”

“They--what? No.” he closed his eyes. The pain flooded back. The feeling of a silver blade curving under his skin, of a hot object being pressed to his stomach, claws digging into his back...

“The marks on your back, how did you get those?”

“What about the scars? What were those from?” that was the second one. Josh could feel himself shaking. What had Tyler called it? A panic attack?

Yeah, he was on the brink of one of those.

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with finding our son’s kidnappers,” spat Josh’s mother. He curled his fingers over his knees and tried to count to ten, just like Tyler said.  _ Just like Tyler said. _

“My apologies, Mrs. Dun. We only want to help your family get justice.”

“Well you don’t need to bring up his bad experiences to do that. In fact, I think you have everything you need.” she stood up and made her way to the front door. “Thank you for taking the time to come agents, but I think it’s best if you leave.”

Number one forced a smile. “Yes ma’am. Thank you for your time. If we get any leads, you’ll be the first to know.” They both stood up, and Josh didn’t open his eyes until he heard their car rumble away.

“Baby, they’re gone.” he felt his mother’s hand on his shoulder and flinched. “I’m sorry Josh, I shouldn’t have let them come in. I didn’t realize they would be so...  _ heartless  _ about it.”

“Well dear, they are the FBI after all; their only job is to retrieve information.” the couch groaned as Josh’s father pushed off of it. Josh stared at the carpet.

“Josh, are you hungry? Can I made you some breakfast?”

“No. I’m going to go back to bed. I didn’t... well, last night was hard.” he remembered Jordan leaving in the middle of the night, a pillow tucked under his arm and a blanket dragging behind him. Josh felt horrible. He wished he could stop, but every night brought new challenges.

“Of course sweetheart, you get all the rest you need. Your father and I will be right downstairs if you need us, okay?”

“Okay.” he forced a smile and climbed up the stairs to his bedroom to change. His mother must have cleaned up the room when he had been sleeping, because it was spotless and showed no trace that a tornado known as Joshua Dun swept through.

Quickly, he dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and pulled a hoodie over his head. It was difficult for him to look at his bare arms and see that cursed tattoo that reminded him of everything that happened.

Josh was heading over to Tyler’s house to use his internet like he promised. Going down the stairs would completely ruin his plan; his father was most like guarding the front door and his mother the back to allow him from escaping their close supervision. The drop out his window didn’t look to bad; if he let himself hang from the window sill and dropped, he’d be fine. So he unlocked the window, unlatched the screen, and after one glance behind him to make sure no one was there, Josh climbed out the window and lowered himself to the ground. He ducked in the bushes and made his way to the front of the house before darting across the street to Tyler’s quaint blue house. There was no guarantee that Tyler would be home, and maybe he had been lying about letting Josh use his internet, but either way Josh wasn’t leaving until he was given access to a computer.

He rapped three solid times on the door and stepped back, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. It wasn’t until the door opened and a middle aged woman stared at him did the thought cross his mind that Tyler might not live alone. Her eyes widened and immediately Josh knew she recognized him. Oh no.

“Joshua Dun?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. His tongue swelled. Tyler’s mother was bound to tell his own. Josh risked getting in trouble for this? He would never get to a damn computer!

“Mom,” Tyler pushed past his mother and flashed Josh a calming smile. “I was expecting him.”

“You... were?” she seemed horrified by that fact.

“Yes, we’re going for a drive. His parents don’t like him being outside by himself. You ready to go, Josh?”

“Y-Y-Yes,” he stuttered, stepping back as Tyler came out onto the porch.

“Tyler,” his mother spoke in hushed whispers as she grabbed the collar of Tyler’s jacket. “I don’t want you around him, he’s unstable-”

“And he can hear you,” Tyler shot back as he yanked out of her grip. He fixed his coat and joined Josh’s side. “Come on.”

“Tyler Joseph, if you don’t come back here right now, you’re GONE! YOU HEAR ME?” she shouted after her son as Tyler led Josh to his car. Josh tried to ignore Mrs. Joseph’s screeches as he climbed into the passenger seat and pulled his seat belt over his chest. Tyler swiftly did the same and barrelled down the street.

“I’m sorry Josh,” apologized Tyler, “I didn’t realize she was going to be so uptight about me-”

“She’s right. I am unstable. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“It’s okay. I’m looking for an apartment of my own anyways. She’s just pissed because she knows she doesn’t have authority over me anymore.”

“Where are we going?” Josh looked out the window. The last time he had been in a car was when they drove home from the airport.

“I’m taking you to my friend Mark’s place so you can get your internet access.”

The idea of meeting someone new did not settle great in his stomach. “No-”

“Don’t worry, he’s at work. I’ve got a key to his apartment so you can use his computer and we can leave.”

“Do you work?”

“I’m looking,” Tyler muttered, tightening his grip on the steering wheel of his car, which seemed to be in terrible condition. The back was full of trash and papers and the car itself made a strange groaning noise. “I saved enough up for a place of my own when I was still in school. I dropped out last year, and that’s what sorta tipped my parents overboard.”

“Oh.”

“Do your parents know you’re with me?”

“Nope.”

“Oh great. I’m helping an escaped vigilante.” Tyler meant it as a joke, but the split second he caught Josh’s face Tyler stopped laughing. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. “

Josh didn’t reply. He continued to watch the passing trees as Tyler drove.

-

Mark’s computer was on the end of his bed, Tyler told him. Josh pushed into Mark’s bedroom as Tyler shut the front door and opened up his macbook.

“Do you know his password?” Josh asked when Tyler sat down at the end of Mark’s bed. He jumped a little when Josh looked up at the door and it slammed shut.

“How did...?” Tyler rubbed at his eyes. He knew he couldn’t ask questions quite yet. “It’s his birthday. Put in twelve dash ten dash eighty-one.”

Josh obeyed, and the computer blinked to a backdrop of the ocean. He stared for a few moments, remembering, or trying rather, to remember how he had been dropped off on a beach. Nothing came to him.

“Do you know what you’re looking for?” Tyler asked.

Josh tore his gaze from the wallpaper on Mark’s computer and opened up a new browser. Mark already had about a hundred tabs open. “Kind of.”

“Mark’s really into photography and video editing,” Tyler explained sheepishly, “be careful with his tabs.”

“I will,” Josh promised. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed in his own name. Hundreds of news articles appeared with similar headlines and his lame junior yearbook photo. Josh scoffed.

“What?” Tyler’s hand brushed his arm and Josh flipped out, Mark’s computer crashing to the floor. They stood quiet for a few moments, Josh’s breathing heavy and Tyler’s eyes wide. 

“No touching,” Josh said coldly. Tyler only nodded. He retrieved Mark’s laptop and handed it back to the shaking boy.

“I’m sorry.”

Josh entered the password once again and clicked on the first article he found. Everything he read had already been said to him, so he backed out and this time typed in  _ tree of life. _

“Is that what you think your tattoo means?”

“The tree of life is a symbol for strength and protection. I think they put this on me as a reminder that they never meant to hurt me.”

“Can you... could you further explain things to me?” The thing about Tyler was that he didn’t talk low to Josh like everyone else did. Josh may have been twenty-four, but he still felt like he was sixteen. To him, he was still a kid, but that didn’t mean people needed to treat him like one. Tyler talked to him like he was a friend, an equal.

“On the night I was taken, I felt like I was thrown into the back seat of a car. I couldn’t see anything obviously, because I was blind. But the thing was, it wasn’t a car. It didn’t make sounds like a car. The people touching me, I knew right away they weren’t human. I didn’t need to see them to know that.”

“What did they feel like?”

“I don’t know how to describe it. It just, it didn’t feel human.” Josh shook his head in frustration and continued to scroll for information. “I don’t remember much after that. I think I was unconscious.”

“How are you so sure that they were aliens and not normal people?”

“Tyler,” Josh smiled, “I’m not blind anymore.”

“I understand that, but how?”

“I don’t know. It’s something I don’t know. I’m trying to figure things out. Now this tree,” he gestured to his left arm, “it was something I saw a lot. I still dream about it. I think this is where I was, this weird dimension of space. I don’t think I was on a ship for long. I think they brought me back to where they lived to study me.”

“Why you? Why not anyone else?”

“One, I think it was because I was disabled. Two, I don’t know. I need to find that out too.” Josh opened up a new tab, this time typing in  _ blind miracles.  _ The first website was a story about Christ.

Tyler peered over Josh’s shoulder curiously. “The bible claims Christ healed a blind man in Bethsaida. The tree of life and now this? So far, everything’s been connected to bible stories. Josh, what if it’s not aliens?”

“What else could it be?” Josh turned around to face Tyler with his face twisted in contortion. Tyler swallowed hard.

“Angels.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't believe everything you read


	3. Champion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josh's parents are frustrated with him, Tyler leaves, and Jordan just wants company.
> 
> Oh, and Josh still wants answers.

“That’s absolutely ridiculous,” Josh replied. He turned back towards the computer.

“I’m the ridiculous one?” Tyler snorted. “Do you even know the story?”

“Of course I do. He wiped mud on the blind guy’s eyes-” Josh suddenly stopped and his brain started ringing. He remember cold pressure, someone’s smooth, silky skin skimming over his eyes and nose...

A picture frame hanging on Mark’s wall suddenly fell askew before it slipped to the ground. Josh pretended not to notice. “Do you remember Mr. Gregory’s world history class?”

“When we were freshman? Yes. What about him?”

“The five themes of history, the things that every civilization in history had to follow in order to rise up. Religion was always apart of that. Religion has always been around, maybe they’re trying to follow society’s rules here, they want to understand us...”

“And you were who they picked.”

“Yes. I was their... subject, I guess.”

“Do you think they also gave you...” Tyler trailed off, unsure how to phrase the question. Josh shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know why I can suddenly... do stuff, but I’m hoping I can get some answers. I just, I want to talk to them again. If I can talk to them, if I can reach them, then maybe... there’s always been life on other planets, I knew that from the start.”

“You don’t think there’s any other possibility of you maybe just being kidnapped? What if you hallucinated stuff? What if they put drugs in your system, and you were delirious, and maybe developed a little bit of stockholm syndrome? Do you not want to give them up because you’re afraid of hurting them?”

“WHAT?” Josh roared, his calm behavior flipping like a switch. He bounced off the bed and pushed himself into a corner as far away from Tyler as possible. “You said you believed me!”

“I do believe you Josh, I do, but don’t you think we should take other possibilities into account?

“I know what happened. I have the scars and the memories to prove it.” he started peeling off his clothes again. “Do you need me to refresh your goddamn memory? You saw my stomach just last night, you remember that?”

“Okay, I’m sorry!” Tyler stared at him in fright.

Just like everyone else did.

Josh broke down into tears and slumped to the ground, his hoodie and tee still tangled in his arms. He never wanted people to fear him, he just wanted closure, he wanted someone to believe him, to  _ love him again. _ Because no matter what his parents said, Josh knew they didn’t love him the way they had before he had been taken.

“Josh,” Tyler called his name softly, and even though he wasn’t looking, Josh could hear Tyler’s footsteps. The way Tyler said his name brought back a wave of memories from his time in high school. The way Tyler would take his hand and lead him to the bathroom, or read to him, or would tell him about this new album he found that was just the absolute  _ best, _ and Tyler was different because he described every last detail down to the colour of the goddamn  _ words. _ And he always said  _ Josh _ beforehand so sweetly soft like he was speaking to a friend and not just another special needs kid.

“Josh,” Tyler said again, “I’m not afraid of you. I believe you. I want to help you.”

“You were always different,” Josh whispered. “I know you never wanted to be my friend, but thank you for making me feel like I was a normal kid.”

Tyler’s heart broke. He knelt down in front of Josh’s shaking body and stared at him. Josh stared back. He didn’t know what about Tyler made him so different from everybody else. Maybe there was nothing different about him. Maybe Tyler was just nice and that was it.

“Josh?” Tyler finally broke the silence. Josh shook his head and fixed his clothes.

“I’m sorry for freaking out on you.”

“It’s okay. I get it. I’m sorry for lashing out at you.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

Before Josh had time to reply, the door to Mark’s apartment clicked open. Josh turned pale while Tyler stood up and peeked out into the hallway. His shoulders were rigid and his hand reached out for the closest thing he could use as a weapon, which happened to be a pen.

“Tyler, are you here? Is that why you didn’t lock my fucking door?” Tyler relaxed, which calmed Josh down a little bit. It wasn’t a robber or anyone coming to hurt them. It must have been Mark. Of course, Josh didn’t want to speak to him, but he would take Tyler’s friend over some random person on the street any day.

Tyler looked back over at Josh from his shoulder, almost if to ask if it was okay for him to respond. Josh nodded his head.

“Yeah Mark, I’m in your bedroom. I uhm, had to borrow your laptop.”

“Dude, what the hell? You better not have touched my shit-” Mark pushed into his bedroom before Tyler could do anything to stop him, and he cut his sentence short the second he locked eyes with Josh in the corner. “Holy shit.  _ Holy shit. _ Tyler-”

“Mark, this is my friend Josh.” he grabbed hold of Mark’s arm and stopped him from getting any closer. “He came with me so I wouldn’t be alone.” Josh’s cheeks turned red.

“Tyler,” Mark gaped, blinking, trying to comprehend everything that was going on, “That’s  _ Joshua Dun-” _

“I know who he is Mark. Leave him be.”

Slowly but surely, Mark seemed to realize how stupid he looked with his mouth hanging open and closed it. Tyler gestured to the bed, and he sat down.

A few more seconds passed. Tyler coughed into the crook of his arm and Josh strung his arms around his knees. Mark tried not to look at Josh, but succumbed and glanced a few more times before he turned towards Tyler and half shouted, “why were you using my computer?!”

Josh cowered farther. He wanted nobody to know, nobody besides Tyler. He could trust nobody with the truth except Tyler, because nobody else would believe him. Josh managed to catch Tyler’s eye just long enough to plead silently with him, and Tyler caved.

“Mine broke, I just needed to do some research for a paper I’m writing.”

Mark narrowed his eyes. “You aren’t in school anymore.” his suspiciousness was what caused him to open the laptop and stare at the open tabs Josh had left behind. “Blind Miracles? Tree of Life? What are you up to Tyler?”

He attempted to change the subject. “Mark, do you think I could move in with you? I’ll pay rent, we can be roommates-”

“I don’t know what kind of shit you’re pulling dude, but I don’t care anymore.” he sighed. “Work got cut short. Turns out the store is going out of business, so it looks like I’m out of a job.”

“You don’t know that,” Tyler tried, attempting to be optimistic, “they’ll need people still, to help get everything out.”

“I highly doubt it.” The two continued their conversation, and it melted away from Josh, who focused all his attention on an open book lying on Mark’s bedside table. He narrowed his eyes, and focused in on it. So far, he was only doing strange things when he got upset; if he could figure out how to control it all the time, it might come in handy.

A few pages ruffled, but that was as much as Josh was going to get finished. With a huff he pushed himself off the carpet and stood up, catching the attention of both Mark and Tyler.

“Are you ready to go?” Tyler inquired. Josh nodded, and just like that Tyler was on the move with Josh in tow. Mark followed the both of them, still very, very confused.

“How are you...? You know people would die to talk to you,” he exclaimed, throwing one of his hands into the wall. Tyler ushered Josh out the door.

“I’ll see you later Mark, but I’m dead serious about moving in.” and just like that, the door shut, leaving the two alone. Josh started walking back to the car, his head down. He knew what was waiting for him back at home and wasn’t looking forward to it at all.

“Josh?”

He pivoted back around, where Tyler still had his hand around the doorknob tentatively, his eyes still crinkled with worry. “What?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“I didn’t know Mark would be home so early.”

“I’m fine,” he promised. “We should probably go home.”

“Well wait,” suddenly Tyler was by his side, not touching him, but hovering, and Josh wondered how he had become so fast. “I mean, we don’t,  _ have _ to go home. Are you hungry?”

“Sort of,” admitted Josh, “I haven’t eaten today.”

“Let’s go get breakfast. My treat. I just, I feel terrible, for what happened in there-”

“Forget about it, okay? I’m fine. I got what I needed, now I just need to figure out how to contact them. That part I can do on my own.”

Tyler didn’t seem to buy it. “I want to help. I mean that.”

Since the first time since he had seen Tyler, he let his eyes wander. Tyler was lanky, but well in shape, given the size of his arms. His hair was dark and long, still wet from his morning shower. It glistened, curled, and stuck up in places he had aimlessly ran his fingers through. His eyebrows were thick, but they looked soft, and his eyes, dark brown, matched the tone of his voice. They shone with the light of a thousand stars.

He had a little bit of scruff, and his lips stuck out in a little bit of a pout; Josh assumed he was probably wondering why he was being observed like a zoo animal.

“What?” Tyler finally asked.

“Nothing,” Josh replied. “I just, I never got to put a face to your voice. It’s still a bit crazy for me.” he inhaled sharply through his nose. Back when he had been blind, feeling someone’s face was how he came to recognize them. Josh had never gotten to touch Tyler’s face. He figured their relationship didn’t pass the title of acquaintances and never asked. But now...

“Weird question, because I know I can see you now, but do you mind if...” Josh gestured to his face. Tyler’s eyes lit even brighter.

“Oh! You wanna, sure, sure.” he stepped forward, and ever so gently, Josh closed his eyes, and let his hand do the work. He touched an ear, Tyler’s jaw, his eyebrows, the bridge of his nose, his cheekbones. Tyler stood still until Josh was finished.

“I’d love to go to breakfast with you.”

Tyler grinned. “Good.”

-

They went to an IHOP, where Josh was starting on his second stack of pancakes when Tyler finally spoke to him for the first time since they had arrived.

“I guess ‘sort of’ hungry was an understatement, huh?”

Josh stopped mid-bite, letting his fork hover right below his mouth. He hadn’t realized how hungry he really had been until the waitress had put down his food. In fact, he felt a little bit self conscious now. “Sorry. I didn’t mean-”

“No, no, you’re fine. Go ahead.” Tyler dismissed him with wave of his hand. “You eat as much as you want.”

“I haven’t had pancakes in so long,” he laughed softly, ducking his head from Tyler’s sight, “I forgot how good they were.”

“Did they feed you? Up... there?”

“Through a tube,” Josh went back to shoveling the syrupy mixture into his mouth, “They didn’t have to feed me that much, I think, I think I was in some kind of hibernation or something.”

“So... you haven’t eaten real food in seven years?”

A shrug. “Guess not.” Josh let his fork clatter onto his plate and pushed it away to the side. He no longer had an appetite, not after thinking about that.

“Any other foods you miss?”

Josh thought about it. “Not a food, but coffee. I missed coffee so much.” he scraped some dried syrup off the table top with his pinky nail. “My parents have been really watchful of what I’m eating. The hospital told then I needed to ease back into real foods. So I haven’t been eating much beside soup and sandwiches, and the occasional glass of soda.”

“Next time then, we’ll go get a coffee.”

“I’d like that.”

Tyler took him home after he paid, and on the way they devised a plan so Tyler wouldn’t get in trouble for “helping an escaped vigilante.” He parked his car down the street and together they walked back down to Josh’s house. It was almost two o’clock and Jordan’s car was in the driveway; neither one of them realized how long they had been out.

Josh reached out to knock, when Tyler stopped him. He looked back over at the brunette with wide eyes. “What?”

“I just... I want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine,” he promised. Tyler’s sudden extreme concern confused him.

“You know your parents are going to be upset.”

“I’m well aware.”

Tyler opened his mouth slightly, like he was going to say more, but it closed seconds later. Josh wished Tyler  _ would _ have said more. He wanted to stall, because he knew he wasn’t going to be able to get out of the house again for a very long time.

After a few more seconds, Josh let out a sigh and returned to his previous stance so he could pound on the door. He then stepped back and looked down at a crack in the cement. He pushed his foot into it as his front door creaked open.

“Hi Mrs. Dun, I found Josh wandering around the edge of the neighborhood.”

Josh’s mother gasped loudly and shoved Tyler out of the way so she could pull him so into a huge hug. Josh went rigid under his mother’s touch and relaxed only when she let go, her hands lingering, just in case Josh tried something. She said nothing as Josh filed into the house and gave Tyler one last pleading look before the door was slammed in his face.

His mother didn’t say a word, just gave Josh a sad, pitiful look. He wondered if they knew about the window. They had to have seen it, right? He hadn’t been able to close it.

Josh’s father sat on the sofa reading a newspaper. He didn’t look up when his wife stormed into the kitchen or when his son lingered at the front door. Josh didn’t know what to do. This hadn’t been the reaction he expected from his parents.

Instead of dwelling on what could have happened, Josh stepped to the side so he could catch a peek at Tyler walking back to his house. He had his hands shoved deep in his pockets and kept his head down. The wind swept a few leaves under his feet before dancing down the street.

With a long sigh, Josh dropped the blinds and turned back towards his father, who looked up at him as he took a sip from his coffee mug.

“You gave your mother quite a scare.”

Josh didn’t reply. He shoved past his father and climbed the stairs to his room, intent on reading a book or something. He didn’t want to be around his parents if he didn’t have to.

“Did he go upstairs?” his mother asked, settling down on the couch next to her husband. Josh froze, his hand curling over the railing. They couldn’t see him from his position at the top of the stairs, so he lowered himself to the ground to listen.

“Appears so.”

“What are we going to do?” Hysteria was beginning to creep into his mother’s voice, and he pictured her pushing fingers into his eyes. “He keeps, this is the second time he’s disappeared, and he snuck out the  _ window-” _

“Maybe he needs some space dear, we don’t know what happened-”

“Because he won’t  _ tell  _ us! He doesn’t even want to speak with us, how are we supposed to be supportive-” all her words hit a brick wall, and Mrs. Dun let out a heart wrenching sob. “I can’t do this anymore, I can’t keep chasing after him, I don’t want to lose him again, or hurt him, or, or-” the ability to talk became lost upon her as she broke out into more sobs. Josh’s hand wrapped so tightly around the railing now that his knuckles were starch white. He was furious, and before he could control himself, Josh was flying into the living room.

“You want to know what happened to me? Do you really?” his mother picked herself off her husband’s arm and sniffed. Josh noted she look terrified, which he deemed a good thing. If she wanted this, he was going to give it to her. “I was  _ never left alone.  _ Day and night, I was touched all over, bled all over the place, had hunking metal shoved into my stomach and my back and my chest. They  _ never left. _ And every goddamn day, I was suffering. I wanted to DIE!” He was screaming now, unable to stop his tears from falling. “I am not the same person I was seven years ago. I’m sorry I don’t act the same way. I don’t want to think about anything that happened. So yeah, I’m going to want my fucking space.” he stared at them for a few seconds, his fists curling by his side. Josh had always tried to be calm when arguing with someone, but now, he felt like a boiling volcano. He couldn’t do this anymore.

His parents looked at him with so much fear in their eyes that Josh wanted to crawl under his covers and hide away. The way they acted towards him was so far off from how they remembered. They acted like he was a ticking bomb just waiting to explode. They looked at him with pity and walked on eggshells around him.

Josh walked out of the room through the front door after that, with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. His head was a swirling mess of anger, frustration, and sorrow. He had only been back home a week and a half; what on earth did they expect from him? Did they expect him to be happy and cheery like he had as a sixteen year old blind kid?

When he reached the creek, Josh sat down, not caring his was sitting in a mess of twigs and leaves. He wished he could leave far, far,  _ far _ away from here. Even better, he wished he could be with Tyler again.

Josh didn’t understand why he felt so comfortable around the guy. They had never been close, they had never even been friends, but he was the first person besides his family to treat him with respect. He treated Josh like an equal. He didn’t look at Josh with pity in his eyes or apologize every two seconds for what happened to him. Tyler  _ believed  _ him.

And maybe he was only talking to Josh because he felt bad. Maybe he didn’t actually plan on sticking around. Either way, Josh trusted him.

A few sticks cracked behind him as a person made their way down to where Josh was sitting. He instantly recognized Jordan as his brother dropped down next to him, still in his school clothes, which consisted of khakis and a button up with a sweater over it. Jordan hiked his knees to his chest and sighed heavily.

“I overheard you fighting with Mom and Dad.”

“Wonderful,” Josh muttered through gritted teeth. He tossed a stone into the creek and watched the water ripple.

“They’re worried about you Josh. We all are.” Josh didn’t reply or even bother to look over at his brother. He continued to stare at the creek. “The night you disappeared, we didn’t even realize until you had to leave for school. And you went to school later than us, remember?”

“Hmmph.” He remembered.

“At first, Mom figured you might have been in the bathroom or something else, since you could do that on your own, so she gave you a few minutes. After that, she lost it and searched the whole house, but you were nowhere to be found. She called Dad right away, who pulled us out of school, before she called the police. They looked all over for you for so long, but no matter where they looked, they couldn’t find you. Abby, Ashley and I, we didn’t go to school for a whole week, but there were whispers around town. A lot of people thought that maybe you had been murdered or killed yourself, and kids were  _ so nasty. _ Everyday, even as a fifth grader, I heard people whispering about how I was the kid whose brother went missing.” Jordan paused to catch his breath and scratched at his leg. “They had a spot for you at your graduation. We all went. They gave a speech about how kind you were, how you had such an impact... and after that, we went home. Year after year passed and the speculations never ended. I still had to go to school and deal with the pity and the rumors and the strange looks. Mom and Dad, they started to think you had died. Even Ashley and Abby. Mom... I think it definitely was the worst for her. She never left her bed those first couple of years. I once heard her yelling at Dad that she couldn’t live anymore. Everything became so hard. They had all lost hope, but I tried to stay positive. I knew that you were going to come home. And you did, you finally did!” He laughed loudly, dotted at his eyes with his shirt sleeve, and glanced over at Josh. “The problem with Mom and Dad is that they don’t understand that you’ve changed, that you're not sixteen anymore. They’re trying to love the old Josh, not the new Josh. You’ve just gotta give them time, just like they have to give you time, and space. You gotta give them time to  _ understand.” _

Josh nodded. He never really got a chance to think about how his disappearance affected his family. His whole time back, every problem he had was because of  _ him, _ not his family. Even now, watching Jordan smile at him with swollen, red eyes and tear stained cheeks, his heart ached. “Are the kids at school still bothering you?”

“Oh yeah. You’re sort of a celebrity now.”

A scoff. “Tell me about it.”

“It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about me. They’re just kids. And after this year, I don’t have to worry about it anymore.” Jordan smiled. “Are you gonna go back to the house?”

“Maybe later. I still gotta cool off.”

“Understandable.” A few seconds of silence passed as Jordan pushed himself off the dirt and dusted off his pants. Josh could feel him watching, studying, before he cleared his throat. “Please be safe.”

“I will.” He tossed another stone into the water. It bounced once before landing with a soft  _ plop. _

“Hey Josh?”

Josh craned his neck around towards his brother, who managed a small, half-smile. “Huh?”

“I love you. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I love you too Jordan.” Josh forced his own half-smile and watched Jordan walk out of the woods back towards their house. He watched until he could no longer make out his brother’s figure amidst the setting sun and turned back around towards the only place that could make him calm.

-

Two more weeks flew by. Abby and Ashley stopped by to visit a few more times, but Josh never left his room, and when they tried to talk to him, he only listened. Josh never really left his room unless he absolutely had to. He never wanted to be around his parents or in unfamiliar territory, and his room was where he felt most comfortable. Josh’s father left him food outside the door three times a day, alerting him with a knock. His mother avoided him at all cost.

Jordan would come in some days and do his calculus homework at the foot of Josh’s bed. He’d tell Josh stories about stuff that happened at school, about his annoying assignments and friendly teachers, even what he ate for lunch. Josh would pretend to read a book, but really he couldn’t concentrate. He liked listening to Jordan’s stories even though he didn’t talk much himself. Jordan didn’t seem to mind his brother’s silence; it was mostly the company he was looking for anyways.

Tyler seemed to have disappeared. Every time Josh did leave his room, he stole glances out the window to find his car was almost never in the driveway, and soon Josh was beginning to think that maybe he really did move. Although he knew he didn’t exactly need Tyler to finish finding the things that took him, Josh wanted him around. The idea of never seeing Tyler again made his stomach twist into knots.

Towards the end of his third week being back home, Josh’s father pushed into his room. Josh was curled in the corner of his bed with a book in his hand, his brow furrowed in concentration. He had borrowed it from Jordan, whose teacher happily let Jordan keep it a little bit longer for “his missing brother who never got a chance to finish high school.”

Josh hadn’t showered in days and he probably smelled sitting in a pair of high water sweatpants and a too tight shirt. All his clothes were still meant for a lanky sixteen year old and really didn’t fit him anymore, and Josh didn’t have enough strength to ask for a whole new wardrobe.

“Hey kiddo.” the bed creaked underneath his weight as he pressed himself as far away from Josh as possible. Mr. Dun didn’t mean it in a rude way by any means, he just didn’t want to scare his son. Josh seemed to realize this and peeked over the top of his book. “How are you?”

“Fine,” Josh mumbled, looking back down. His father cleared his throat.

_ “Hamlet, _ huh? Jordan just finished reading that.”

“Yeah, he let me borrow it, since I never got to read it senior year.”

“Oh. That’s nice of him. I didn’t realize you could...” he trailed off, unsure of how to phrase his next sentence. Josh knew what he was thinking. That was another one of those of questions he had without an answer. How  _ could  _ he read? Josh had never been taught the alphabet; he grew up learning and reading braille. By normal means, these words should have been nothing but letters to him. Amazingly however, Josh had been able to pick up a book and read like anyone else.

“Yeah, I didn’t realize I could either.” Josh  _ still _ didn’t look up from the words on the page. Hamlet was trying to kill his father-uncle, but didn’t have the heart to go through with it. He hoped his father would take the hint and leave.

“Look Josh,” he rubbed the back of his neck raw, tinging it red, which bore a resemblance to his cheeks, “I know it’s been a difficult few weeks, and I thought maybe we could get out of the house, just the two of us, and go downtown. I figured you could get some new clothes, since the ones you have now are looking a little... tight.”

That caught Josh’s attention. He let his book flap close and set it aside. “Really?”

“Really.”

“I would like that. Is uhm, would Mom be-”

“No,” he interrupted. “She would not. It’d be you and me. “

“Okay. I’d like that. I just gotta shower and stuff.”

“Right, of course. You take all the time you need. I’ll be waiting downstairs for you.” After a few more awkward seconds, Josh’s father pushed off the bed and headed towards the living room, politely shutting the door behind him. Josh gathered everything he needed in a big heapful and trucked down the hall towards the bathroom. He felt more comfortable around his father than his mother for now, and the idea of getting new clothes was enough to get him out of the house for a little while. Besides, he probably needed it. His skin was a still too sickly pale from years of being trapped in a metal machine.

The drive down to Columbus was quiet, the radio on a low hum. It was some Christian song network that really only took songs popular on the radio and made them all religious. Josh hated it, and he doubted his father actually enjoyed it either. It was the only station his mother permitted the family to indulge in.

About halfway downtown, Josh’s father cleared his throat. Josh had his body turned so he could look out the window, his palm tucked neatly under his chin. “I don’t know a ton about fashion or anything, that’s more of your mother’s department. I just figured we could hit some department stores.”

Josh snorted and moved so he was staring out the front windshield. “That works for me.” He stole a quick glance at his father and frowned a little. Mr. Dun was sweating immensely, causing his skin to shimmer under the light of the sun. His cheeks were also very red. Josh wondered if he was worried or nervous. They never really had spoken after Josh had his outbreak.

“Dad?”

“Yes?”

“About uhm, what happened, after that day I snuck out. I’m really-”

“You don’t have to say anything Josh. We shouldn’t have pushed it.”

“I never wanted to scare you guys.”

“I can’t imagine the things that happened to you. Listening to that would have made any father furious. I’m just, I’m so sorry. I wished I could have stopped whoever took you. I wish I could kill them myself.”

Josh didn’t reply. He had never seen his father so angry before, as he was usually a quiet and calm man. He guessed the idea of torture to his parents was the last thing they wanted to talk about. So Josh turned back to look at the window.

-

They went to a few different stores so Josh could try on clothes. He didn’t know what size he had grown into, and whatever had happened to him over those seven years had definitely changed from the clothes he could wear. They ended up leaving with a few t-shirts, a couple jackets and hoodies, and a few pairs of jeans, joggers, and sweats. Josh walked out feeling a burst of relief. Maybe he could finally start living a normal life again.

His relief quickly drained away when his father pulled off onto a different road. Josh’s brow furrowed in confusion as he turned to face him. “Where are we going?”

“I uh, have to make a quick errand before we head home. It won’t be too long, promise.”

Josh knew instantly he was lying. His father was sweating even more than he had before.

And that’s how Josh ended up in a small room sitting across from a therapist known by Dr. Graves, or as he had told Josh to call him, Isaac. He was a younger man with a head full of jet black hair. They had been sitting in silence for almost ten minutes now.

“I know you’re upset.”

Josh snorted and clutched the arm of his chair. “Yeah I’m upset. My Dad tricked me.”

“Your parents just want what’s best for you.”

That got him to look up. Dr. Graves had a clipboard sitting on his lap, to which he was lamely tapping a pen to the side of. “Do you know who I am, Dr. Graves?”

“Isaac,” he said firmly before sighing. “Yes. I know of you.”

“I bet you told all your buddies and pals you were getting to help  _ the Joshua Dun _ become sane again, huh? Did you all fight over my case?”

“Of course not Josh. Your parents came specifically to me. I specialize in post traumatic stress disorders and damage from events that strong people like you come out of. I’m here to be a friend, a listener.”

Another scoff. “Sure, let me tell a stranger all my problems.”

“For some it’s much easier to talk about hardships with people that don’t know them. And sure, I know your name, I know that you’re the ‘Ohio Miracle,’ but I don’t know who you are as a person, Josh. That, I want you to tell me about. Who are you?”

“I’m nobody,” he muttered. Dr. Graves shifted in his seat and reached over to drop his clipboard on his desk.

“I have a hard time believing that. You don’t have any hobbies?”

Josh glared at him. “I was blind.”

“But now you’re not.”

“Yeah. Now I’m not.” he shrugged. “Not much time for hobbies when I was trying to survive.” Josh picked at a hangnail on his thumb and sighed. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t  _ need _ to be here. Even if he did talk about his time away, nobody was going to believe him. Dr. Graves would probably scribble some notes down about how Josh was crazy and making up stories to cope with what happened.

“I’m only here to be a listener, Josh. I’m not going to force you to speak. I just want you to know that I’m here to alleviate some of that pain or those repressed memories you have at the back at your brain. If you need someone, I’ll be here.” Josh didn’t respond. He continued to pick at his hangnail until he managed to rip it off. It stung, and a small drop of blood rose to the surface. Don’t get him wrong, he felt bad leaving this man in silence, but Josh didn’t want to talk.

Dr. Graves wasn’t giving up. “Do you have anyone you can talk to?”

Josh didn’t reply right away. He was wary of telling him anything.

“I’m not going to tell anyone anything you tell me. You have complete patient confidentiality. Nothing leaves this room, not even the little stuff. Like your favourite colour.”

That caught his attention. He stopped chewing on his thumb long enough to whisper, “Yeah. His name is Tyler.”

Dr. Graves raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“He uhm, he used to come work in the resource room when we were in high school. He was the only normal kid that spoke to me. He, he was so  _ kind. _ And now, he’s talking to me again. He lives across the street actually.”

He grabbed his clipboard and quickly scrawled down some notes. “Do you enjoy Tyler’s company?”

“Very much. I’ve only been able to see him two times though. My parents don’t like me leaving the house.”

“If you had more time to spend with Tyler, would you feel more comfortable being home?” Josh shrugged. Dr. Graves nodded and looked at his watch. “We’re off to a good start. I’ll see you next week hopefully?”

“I’ll probably get tricked into coming again,” he muttered, standing up to leave. Dr. Graves sighed.

“People care about you Josh. Please know that.” Josh didn’t listen. He walked out of the office, into the lobby, pass his father, and climbed into the passenger seat. He turned his body as far away from his father as he could get and went back to chewing on his thumb, his mouth tingling with the metallic taste of blood.

The car rocked as Mr. Dun climbed in. He let out a heavy breath and banged a fist on the steering wheel. “I’m sorry Josh. If I told you, you wouldn’t have come with me.”

Josh didn’t say a word.


	4. Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes we fight with the people we love, and sometimes we make mistakes that cost us our lives.

The clock on his bedside table read 1:07 am. Josh laid on his bedroom floor and stared at the ceiling, tracing patterns with his finger. Light seemed to dance across the ridges and as he shifted his arm, the tattooed tree seemed to light up as bright as a Christmas tree. Everyday, things became curiouser and curiouser.

A loud  _ bang _ caused Josh to jump off the floor, every bit of light disappearing into the blackness. He looked out his window and about fainted when he recognized Tyler outside, hanging onto the edge with one hand.

“Open your window!” he whisper-shouted, and Josh nodded his head. His parents had never put the screen back over his window, so he was able to pull Tyler inside with ease.

“What are you doing here?” Josh asked as he watched Tyler slide his backpack off his shoulders and dig through it. Tyler pulled out a box and set it on top of Josh’s bed.

“I brought you a wireless router. You just follow the instructions and huzzah, you have internet.” he gestured to the computer across the room. “Figured you could do more research, or something along those lines.”

Josh nodded. He could use all the research he could get. Besides that one morning Tyler took him to Mark’s house, a whole month had passed since Josh had returned from the hospital, and most of his information had come from his memories and his dreams. All he knew was that something was wrong with him, and that he needed to speak to those things again.

“Thank you.”

“How are you?” Tyler was staring at him, with his head tilted slightly. Josh watched him sit at the end of his bed. “It’s been a while.”

“Three weeks,” Josh murmured. He continued to stand and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m fine.”

“How are you sleeping? You still getting night terrors?”

“My uhm, dreams. I think they’re supplying me with more memories. There’s a lot of lights and bright colours. My head’s been hurting, been taking a lot of pain meds. A lot of weird things have been happening.”

“So it’s not just the telekinesis anymore?”

Josh shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel... off. And, and my arm hurts,” he gestured to his tattoo, “sometimes, when I start thinking about what happened. I dunno what this all means. Why did you come this late at night? Why not during the day?”

“I wanted to see you. I needed to see you. I didn’t want to get you into trouble or anything. I just, I figured you’d be awake.”

Josh nodded and leaned back against the wall. He was starting to feel a bit sick. “You shouldn’t have come Tyler.”

“Why not? Do you not want me here? I thought you trusted me.”

“I do trust you!” he raised his voice, stopping himself short when he remembered the gaping hole where his door had been. He needed to keep his voice down. “I do trust you.” Josh pawed at his face and slid down the wall so he could hike his knees to his chest. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get upset.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you.” Tyler’s eyes fell to the carpet. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Did you want to make sure I was okay, or if you were okay?” the two of them looked up at the same time and locked eyes. Tyler swallowed nervously. He began to tap his fingers on his thigh.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Why did you follow me into the woods that day?”

“Your mother asked for help, I offered-”

“Why did you offer? Did you recognize me?”

Tyler hesitated. “Yes. I did recognize you. But only because I remembered you from school, I was driving home from Michigan when I discovered they had found you. I didn’t realize you lived anywhere near me until there was a crowd of people swallowing up the neighborhood.”

“Why did you offer?” Josh repeated. His eyes never looked away from Tyler’s nervous expression.

“Your mom needed help.”

“But you talked to me. You made sure I was okay. Why did you do that?”

“Because it was the nice thing to do! Anyone would have done that, if they had found you.”

“You and I both know that’s bullshit.” He was feeling more and more confident with each passing second. “Why did you talk to me in school?”

“You looked lonely. I felt bad, because you couldn’t see, and everyone-”

“You felt  _ bad _ for me?” Josh was off the ground now and pacing rapidly, angrily. “Oh, Tyler Joseph talked to me because he felt  _ bad.” _

“It wasn’t like that Josh, I just wanted you to have a friend.”

“So you recognized me and thought to yourself, maybe he still needs a friend? Maybe his life is still so fucking pitiful that I need to be the person to fill the void? What happened when you found out I wasn't blind anymore and could see past your bullshit?”

“What do you want me to say?” Tyler threw his arms in the air. “I was nice to you because you’re a human being. I try to be nice to everyone, just ‘cause you were blind didn’t mean I was going to automatically treat you like shit.”

“So tell me why you’re here right now. You took me back home that one night. You promised me internet and got it to me. Why come back? You still ‘just being nice?’”

Tyler clenched fists by his sides so tight his knuckles were turning white. He looked ready to hit something. “Fine. You want the truth? I thought you killed yourself. I thought that maybe if I had been more friendly, if maybe, I had offered for you to come over, or maybe to tutor you or god, I don’t know, maybe sat with you at lunch or something, maybe I could have saved you.”

“Saved me?” Josh scoffed and roughly ran a hand through his hair. “So you felt bad for yourself. This was never about me, was it? You felt bad, you thought you could have done something, so this, whatever you want to call it, is so you could feel better about yourself. This is your redemption.”

Tyler opened his mouth but no words came out. Josh firmly nodded his head.

“I thought so. Just get out. You did your part. Congrats on your fuckin’ redemption.” he pointed a shaking finger back towards the open window, where the wind whistled loudly outside. Tyler lingered, his eyes pleading. He looked more upset than angry now. “You can’t force friendship. Don’t befriend the blind kid because you feel bad. It’s better to just ignore me like everyone else did before all of this.” he scoffed. “You are exactly like everyone else.”

“Josh-”

“GET OUT!” he full on screamed, sending Tyler scrambling back out of the window. He heard a soft  _ thud _ as Tyler’s feet hit the dirt and tossed the backpack out after him. Josh didn’t leave the window until Tyler had disappeared back around the front of his house.

“Josh? Are you okay?” He didn’t need to turn around to know it was Jordan. Josh shook his head and raised a hand to wipe away the tears sliding down his cheeks. They were angry tears, he noted.

“I’m fine. Sorry I woke you up. Bad dream.”

“It’s okay. Uhm, do you wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

Jordan cleared his throat. “Okay. Goodnight Josh.” He padded back down the hallway and his door creaked shut. Josh continued to stare out the window. He could feel his arm burning, and for once, Josh didn’t care that it hurt so badly. He felt betrayed. Tyler had never meant to actually be his friend.

A large tree in his backyard swayed with the breeze. It didn’t have many leaves left, but the ones it did have all simultaneously plummeted to the ground. Even some branches, weak with cold, tore off and lamely flopped to the grass below. He was forced to face the facts right then and there.

He was alone.

-

His father took him to another therapy appointment. Josh told Dr. Graves that he no longer talked to Tyler.

“Why’s that?” asked the therapist. 

“He never really wanted to be my friend. He just wanted to make himself feel better about my disappearance.”

“So... was he pretty distraught about it?”

“He thought I killed myself.”

“Oh.” Dr. Graves understood what Josh was getting at. “So it was pity.”

“Yeah.” Josh twisted his hands in his lap uncomfortably and glanced towards the door.

“You told me that Tyler was different, that he had always been different.”

A sigh. “Well, he was. He talked to me at school and no one really ever did that besides my aide. We talked about music, we actually had a ton in common...” he trailed off. “I don’t know. I thought he was different.”

“Did you want him to be different?”

Josh shrugged. “I guess I did. I never understood why. My first day back, I saw him mowing his lawn. And, and I  _ recognized _ him. I don’t know how. I don’t know what role he plays in all of this. He’s just... different. I guess he still is different. I don’t want him to disappear.”

“Then don’t let him.”

That stuck with Josh for a while. He had never had friends to chase after. Tyler could be his first.

When he got home, Josh stood in the front yard watching Tyler’s house. His car wasn’t in the driveway and the house sagged sadly, like it was ready to collapse any second.

“Josh?” his father called, “Are you coming inside?”

“Just a minute,” Josh promised. “I just need some fresh air. I won’t run off,” he added when his father looked reluctant. After a long sigh, Josh’s father nodded his head and turned inside.

Josh found himself soon after trudging down to the Joseph home. He took a few deep breaths before knocking and dug his foot into the ground nervously as he waited for an answer. After a minute nothing came. Josh tried again.

This time, the door flew open. “Tyler isn’t home.”

Josh gulped as he stared at Tyler’s mother. She seemed jumpy and paranoid. “Oh. Uhm, do you know when he might be back?”

“He doesn’t live here anymore. And if I were you, I wouldn’t come back. I don’t want you anywhere near my home, understand me?” she glared at him. Josh took a few steps back.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, unsure of what he could have done to upset Mrs. Joseph. She pointed towards Josh’s house.

“Get away and never come back here, understand?”

Josh fled. He ran and ran until he was back up in his room, and without a door to slam, Josh dropped to his bed. Tyler moved. When had he moved? He had just been up in Josh’s room earlier this week, when did he have time to _ move? _

It was too late. Josh pushed Tyler out of his life and he wasn’t getting him back.

He groaned in frustration, watching as a small crack ran up his wall. It wasn’t very big, and surely wasn’t enough to do any damage, but he stared at it curiously. Whatever those  _ things _ did to him, he needed to find out quickly, because it was starting to make him delirious. He knew to contact them he would need to somehow get their attention, and he didn’t know how. All he did know was that he needed to get back to the tree with all its crazy colours.

Josh began spending his nights slaving away at his computer to gather as much research as he could on aliens. He didn’t find much besides the usual tiny green men, but some websites mentioned the possibility of life on other planets, of ufos and crop circles and strange silver-blue light. His encounter with the unknown had been nothing like everyone online was saying. He was starting to hit several dead ends.

Nothing explained the strange symbols or writing on his torso or the tree on his arm. Nothing even explained his dreams, or his nightmares, or his sudden ability to move things with his mind.  _ Nothing made any sense. _

Maybe there was no way to get back. Maybe Josh was crazy.

He let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair to massage his temples. Josh had no idea what he was going to do.

-

“I’m going out,” Tyler shouted over his shoulder has he left the apartment. Mark grunted in response as Tyler slammed the door shut. He climbed into his car and banged a fist on his steering wheel. 

He had finally gathered the courage to leave his parent’s house and moved into Mark’s spare room. Tyler’s parents were furious with him, but he didn’t care. He was sick of having to deal with all their constant nagging. They didn’t understand why he had dropped out of college. They didn’t understand why he wasn’t working, or how he thought he could possibly make a living being a songwriter. His skin crawled with anger every time they threw that in his face. His parents didn’t understand  _ anything. _

Tyler thought maybe things were starting to shape up, but then he had to go and fuck everything up again. He never meant to hurt Josh, he never  _ wanted  _ to, but that was what ended up happening. And Tyler couldn’t go back there.

Josh had been right though. Tyler’s only intention at first had been to help so he no longer felt guilty about Josh’s disappearance, but as things moved forward, Tyler became intrigued. If Josh really did get abducted by aliens, and there was a chance that they could talk to the Unknown, he wanted to be there. He didn’t want Josh to have to go through that alone.

Tyler sighed loudly and leaned back in his seat. Josh had been through so much. Even if it hadn’t been aliens, Josh very well might have been kidnapped and tortured by  _ people. _ He had so many scars that covered his entire body. However, the kidnapping theory didn’t account for the fact that Josh could move things with his mind or was obviously more strong and more fit. The whole thing made Tyler’s brain hurt.

He decided he was going to get a coffee. He couldn’t keep wallowing in the past; he needed to move on, and getting out of the house was his first step. Starbucks was just up the street from Mark’s apartment, so that’s where Tyler set off, planning on spending some time thinking through what was going to happen.

He certainly did not expect to run into a tall man by the name of Isaac Graves, who told Tyler he recognized him. 

“Tyler Joseph?” he asked, his coffee cup tilting dangerously towards the ground. Tyler nodded, his face twisting into contortion.

“That’s me. Sorry, do I know you?”

“No. My name is Isaac, I’m, well, it’d be better if we sat down.” he gestured towards a table in the back of the cafe rightside a window, and the two took their seats. Tyler pulled his cup towards his chest and let the warmth sink into his fingers. “Look, technically I’m not supposed to tell you this, it’s a patient confidentially thing, but I think, for my patient’s safety, you need to hear this. I’m Josh’s therapist.”

“Josh... Dun?” Tyler asked tentatively, wondering if he could ask that. Luckily for him, Isaac nodded.

“Yes. He comes to my office regularly, and I’m worried about him. I only recognized you because he showed me some photos from high school. I’m glad to see you haven’t changed one bit.” he chuckled a little at himself and took a gulp from his cup. “Josh is struggling.”

“Did you tell you about the aliens?”

“What?” The man leaned in. “No. He’s never brought that up. Tyler, he talks about you.”

Tyler felt his heart skip a beat. “What?”

“He said you guys don’t talk anymore. And he misses you Tyler, he really misses you. I can’t get him to talk about anyone or anything else, he never wants to talk about what happened those seven years. You were his savior in high school, and you are his savior now. He trusts you.”

“We got in a fight,” Tyler explained, wondering if Josh had told Isaac about this, “You see, I felt really guilty about his disappearance, and at first, I felt sorry, I wanted to make the guilt go away, so I talked to him. I helped him. But I never meant to hurt him.”

“He’s only been back a couple months. Josh doesn’t understand much of what’s going on. His parents are afraid of him, and he only seen his sisters a few times. He claims Jordan is the only one that still talks to him really. I fear he might stop talking altogether.” He paused to take another swig of coffee. “But if you go back into his life, he will talk to you. I know he will.”

“He was so mad at me-”

“I know he was, but he’s forgiven you. Josh told me he didn’t want to lose you. And he... he went to your house looking for you.”

Tyler’s eyes widened.  _ Oh no. _ “I, I moved. My mother, she’s terrified of him, calls him unstable-”

“Josh found that out really quick. He comes into my office looking like he hasn’t slept in days. And maybe he hasn’t.”

“He gets these night terrors.”

“As I figured.” Tyler watched the man finish the rest of his coffee and crush the cup in his hand. “I have to run now. All I’m saying, is don’t let him go. Be his friend, because he needs one right now. He really needs one.”

Tyler watched Isaac Graves shuffle through the Starbucks cafe and push through the door, a tiny bell alerting his exit. Once again, Tyler slumped in his seat. Josh was going to therapy sessions only to talk about the kid that spoke to him in high school. The only kid, apparently.

High school had been such a shitty time for Tyler and he tried not to think about it, but Josh had been special. Sure, Tyler hadn’t talked to Josh every day, and he never hung out with him, but Josh, although blind, was like everyone else. He liked the same things Tyler liked. He acted like everyone else, he just, he couldn’t  _ see, _ and because of that, because he spent his time in the resource class, because he went into school late and left early, people avoided him. It had broke Tyler’s heart then and it broke his heart now. 

Which left the question: why  _ did _ Tyler talk to Josh in the first place?

He needed to go back, he realized. He needed to tell Josh he was sorry and promise to help find the things that stole him off Earth. Tyler was booking it to his car mere seconds after that, his heart thumping against his ribcage as he jammed his keys into the ignition and took off back towards his neighborhood. He felt like he was in a high speed chase with how fast he was going, and although a speeding ticket really was not in his budget right now, Tyler couldn’t help but feel like something terrible was going to happen if he didn’t get there quick.

He couldn’t begin to understand how right he was.

-

Josh trekked his way back down to the creek with a notebook tucked under his arm and a pen behind his ear. He planned on getting away to think, as Jordan was home from school and Abby and Ashley were home visiting. His whole family was gathered in the living room and distracted long enough for him to sneak out the back door. Josh most likely would have been screamed at and things would not have ended up well.

But here, hidden and secluded in the woods with the creek trickling in front of him, Josh felt safe. He had been extremely jumpy since he had arrived home from the hospital; he didn’t even feel safe in his own home.

He set his notebook to the side and pulled his knees up to his chest. Josh hadn’t been able to shift or bend water since the night Tyler found him. He hadn’t been able to do much since that night actually, not unless he got really frustrated or angry. Josh hoped that if he was able to contact them, they might be able to help him understand how to control it.

“Hey, up there.” Josh cleared his throat and tossed a rock into the water. “I don’t know if you’re listening. I don’t know if you’re still watching me, or watching the human race, or any of that stuff. I hope you are. I hope there’s a chance that we can talk. Because I’m falling apart down here.” Josh began to laugh, small giggles that started in his belly and gradually made their way up to his throat until he was hysterical. “I don’t belong on Earth. I never belonged here. You guys, you changed my life, and if you can take me back, take me back to the tree of life, let me be  _ born  _ again, I’d do anything. Let me live with you, let me be on your planet, in your world. I’m so ill. I  _ need _ you guys. And I don’t care that you harmed me. You never meant to, I know you never meant to. I forgive you.”

Josh tossed another stone and watched it skip two times before it plummeted. He was crying now, tears silently weaving their way down his pink cheeks. Almost two months back on Earth and Josh couldn’t take it anymore. This gift of sight was nothing but a curse.

A low whistle interrupted his thoughts and caused him to glance around the creek bed. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but it came again, and again, until Josh’s head was ringing. Maybe they had heard him, maybe they were finally going to take him back!

A sharp pain rocketed through his neck, and a hand reached up to wrap around the dart that was now stuck in it. His vision blurred, his muscles went slack, and Josh hit the dirt with a dull  _ thud. _

-

“Josh. Josh!”

His ears were still ringing and his breaths were heavy. Josh couldn’t comprehend what exactly was going on; maybe they really had come back for him. Whatever he was in rumbled and he bounced when it hit a bump.

“Shit,” he mumbled, blinking a few times to clear his vision. Tyler stared back at him with his face wrinkled in worry. “Shit, why are you here?” Josh tried to move his arms, only to find out they were tied behind his back. The rope rubbed harder as he pushed and pulled. “Oh shit, shit, SHIT.”

“Josh, calm down.” Tyler scooted closer. His hands were also pulled tight behind his back and his demeanor was much more relaxed.

“Calm down? What the hell is going on?” his voice rose higher as he familiarized himself with his surroundings. He and Tyler were in the back of, a van, by the looks of it, lit by a... silver-blue light. Josh’s heart dropped into his stomach. They hadn’t come back for him. This wasn’t them, what was this?

“I got hit in the neck with a tranquilizer dart, which I assumed happened to you too.” Tyler scoffed. “I was driving back to the neighborhood to come find you when I passed out. I think they managed to shoot me from the open window.”

“How are you so calm about this?” Josh grunted and leaned his head back against the framework. There weren’t even windows for him to look out of to figure out where they were.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you’re here, so it’s going to be okay. Josh, I’m so sorry for what happened that night. I don’t know what it is about you, but I’m drawn to you. Maybe it’s your kindness, or your passion, or your determination. I messed up so badly and I hope you can forgive me.”

“I know you never meant what you admitted. I was caught up in this whole mess and things weren’t good.” he sighed. “They haven’t been good since I’ve come back.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Josh scoffed and shook his head. “It’s okay. We just need to worry about what the hell is going on now. Did you see who took us?”

“No. I woke up back here, same as you.” Tyler shuddered. “Where do you think we’re going?”

“I have no idea.”


	5. Defense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He wishes it had been aliens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for some pretty uh, graphic torture.

The van chugged along for what felt like a very long time. Josh and Tyler conversed about what they thought was going on, what they thought was going to happen, how they could get out. Josh knew now that this was definitely not those  _ things _ this time around.

“These are people,” Tyler said firmly, glancing towards the doors of the van, “I’m certain. And you know I believe you about the alien thing.”

“You’re right. Definitely people. I remember what happened the first time around. This,” Josh paused to gesture to the scene unfolding around them, “was not here.”

“We’ll get out. This isn’t permanent.” 

Josh wasn’t so sure.

Finally, the van rolled to a stop and the back doors opened to reveal two extremely built men. Almost on cue, Josh began to panic as one grabbed his shoulder tightly and shoved him out of the vehicle. The other took hold of Tyler, and together they pushed and shoved both men into a low lit building. Josh struggled to get out the man’s strong grip. He had dark hair and looked fairly young, his attire consisting of a grey suit and a maroon tie. He didn’t look like the kind of person to kidnap strangers.

“Where are you taking us?” Josh demanded, pulling again. “What do you want with us? Why are we here?”

The man ignored him. Josh noticed his eyes were glazed over with an eerie white film, almost like he was blind. But... that couldn’t be. The man, both men, seemed pretty certain where they were heading.

They went down four flights of stairs. The place was extremely clean and void of any dust, almost like nobody had ever stepped foot in it, or it was scrubbed top to bottom once every day. Josh kept his head down most of the time, but the few times he did look over at Tyler, the brunette seemed to be just as worried as him. This place couldn’t have been anything open to the public.

Josh and Tyler were steered around a sharp corner and into a wide, open room, with five identical glass cages in the middle. A small stream ran throughout the stone floor, creating small puddles in dips and curves. Josh’s foot landed in one puddle as he was shoved harshly towards one cage. He grunted as the man cut his restraints and pushed him in. Josh tumbled to the hard ground and scrambled towards the exit as the suited man inputted a code that locked the cage.

“No! NO!” Josh screamed, banging on the wall, only to realize it wasn’t glass, but plastic. There was no way to break it.

He continued to scream as both men walked down the hallway, begging them to come back. His arms ached but Josh did not stop. He couldn’t believe this was happening again.

“Josh,” Tyler said softly, pushing himself against the adjacent wall, “Please stop.”

“This can’t be happening,” Josh stumbled away from the door, his hands flying up to grip the sides of his hair. He felt sick to his stomach, on the verge of a panic attack. His cage was small, with a cot pushed up against one wall. The stream ran underneath all five cages, but the gap wasn’t big enough for even a hand to get through. There wasn’t even any place to use the bathroom, and their only option for food was a small bowl that attached to something that’d be put in a hamster cage. In defeat, Josh dropped to the cot. He was beginning to hyperventilate.

Tyler was on the opposite side of him, his hand resting on the fiberglass wall. “Remember what I told you? Count to ten in, count to ten out. Come on, I’ll do it with you.” Tyler began to count and Josh squeezed his eyes shut. His hands hadn’t left their tight grip on his hair, but he took the deep breath nonetheless.

“It’s okay,” Tyler told him the minute he had finished counting. “We’re going to be okay. We just have to stay calm. You can do that, right? You can stay calm?”

A wave of memories flooded back into his mind, memories that accounted for a whole different set of events than he had previously thought. Josh fell to his knees, suddenly feeling extremely ill.

It never had been aliens. It had been human beings all along.

He had been so stupid.

“FUCK!” Josh was furious. He felt betrayed by his own mind. “SHIT!” Tyler backed away as Josh leaned over and vomited into their only source of clean water.

“Josh!” Tyler looked mortified.

“Fuck.” he muttered again. Josh used the cot to pull himself up and began pacing as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I was so fucking stupid!”

“What are you talking about?”

A loud guffaw left his mouth as he pressed a hand to his forehead. “It never had been extraterrestrials, it had been humans all along, and they, they had some sort control on me, they had me sound like I was crazy! Oh god, I’m going to be sick.”

“Don’t throw up again,  _ please,”  _ Tyler about begged. His hands were pressed against the wall again. “Stay calm Josh, you have to stay calm.”

“Stay calm? How can I fucking stay calm? We’re in cages like fucking animals!”

“I know, but you’re going to stress yourself out, look, you’re already sick. Please, sit down. I’ll, I’ll tell you a story. Anything to make you forget. Look around you Josh, we aren’t getting out anytime soon.”

With a sigh, Josh let himself collapse onto the cot against the fiberglass wall. He laid down and strung his hands across his chest. He focused on his breathing;  _ In, out, in, out, I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay. _

Tyler watched him in worry. Josh blinked a few times, his head stirred, like it had a mind of his own. This couldn’t be happening, he couldn’t be trapped  _ again. _

“I can’t spend another seven years locked away,” he whispered. Tyler shook his head.

“You won’t. I promise. We’re going to get out of here, just not now. We’ll look around. We’ll find a way out. These things take time.”

Josh rolled over onto his side and looked at Tyler through the glass. He could feel tears rolling down his face as he lifted his hand and pressed his fingertips lightly where they lined up with Tyler’s fingers. If he thought hard enough, if he tricked his own mind, it was almost like they were touching. Holding hands, even.

“You trust me, right?” his voice wavered right above a whisper. Josh nodded, gauging a smile out of Tyler. “I promise everything is going to be okay. We have each other, we aren’t going to go mad being by ourselves, and you know what they say, two minds are better than one.”

“I’m scared,” Josh admitted. Tyler continued to smile.

“Can I sing to you?”

Josh didn’t know Tyler sang. But any distraction was better than thinking about his ultimate demise. “Of course.”

Tyler started singing. It was a Death Cab for Cutie song, one that the two of them had talked about back in high school. Josh felt tranquility fall over him. Whatever this was, they could get through it together.

They sat in silence for a few minutes after Tyler finished singing. He laid down after that, and together they stared up at the ceiling. Both of them felt defeated, especially when the fluorescents turned off, and a dim, lavender light filled the room.

A shrill chime boomed throughout the enclave. Josh counted nine of them.

“Must be nine o’clock,” He murmured. Josh hadn’t realized how late it had gotten. How could he have woken up anticipating the day to be normal only to have it end so horribly? 

Tyler shifted on the other side of the wall. “Try to get some rest. No use thinking about how tomorrow is going to be.”

“You think they’ve ever filled all five of these cages?”

“I hope not.” Tyler wrapped his arms around his torso and turned back towards Josh. He rested his hand against the glass and smiled softly when Josh replicated his action.

“Goodnight J.”

-

The next morning Josh awoke to blinding light and that shrill chime again. He counted to seven as he squinted and let his eyes adjust.

“Good morning Joshua! So good to see you again.” A somewhat familiar voice echoed over a loudspeaker. Josh watched Tyler sit up and paw at his face.

“Who’s that?” he asked. Josh shrugged.

“We’re going to do some experiments today. Do you remember those? Your true memories have hopefully come flooding back.” the voice laughed. “I’m sending some friends down to retrieve you. They won’t speak, so don’t try and ask any questions.”

The speaker clicked offline, and Josh shot Tyler a worried glance. “Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

“Remember what I said about being calm?” Tyler tried, watching as Josh jumped off his bed and began pacing again. Any minute now there would be two large  _ brainwashed _ men coming for him, and if these experiments were like anything that happened over those seven years, he was doomed. He might not even survive. The amount of pain they put him through-

A whirring noise interrupted his avalanche of thoughts as a rush of yellow pellets spilled into the silver bowl, the access overflowing onto the rocky floor. Tyler scoffed as he reached for a handful and let them fall through his fingers.

“I guess breakfast is served,” he said dryly.

“I can’t stay calm. I can’t, for seven years they inflicted every kind of pain on me, I can’t do this again.” hands grabbed fistfuls of hair and tugged harshly.

“You can fight back this time, you know how they work,” Tyler argued. Josh went to reply when echoing footsteps alerted the arrival of the same suited men from yesterday. Josh wondered if they had families. He wondered how long they had been here.

The one with the grey suit inputted a code to unlock the door and grabbed Josh by his shirt collar before he could even react. The man was  _ fast. _

“Stay calm!” Tyler shouted as they dragged Josh back down the hallway, his hands pressed hard against the glass. Josh blinked a couple of times and walked with his head down. Both men had a strong hold on him; there was no way he’d be able to run. Even so, he couldn’t leave without Tyler.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he was thrust into a familiar stainless steel room. Flashbacks flooded his mind.

_ His back on cold metal. A curved blade sliding under his skin, sticky blood everywhere, his screams, his screams, rang out louder than anything else... and his head pounded like it was going to explode. _

The two brainwashed slaves slammed Josh down into a chair inside of a tall, skinny glass chamber and tightened cuffs around his wrists. He pulled up, grimacing as they scraped across his skin.

The door latched and one made sure it was sealed before they both stepped back and rested against the back wall. Josh continued to struggle. He wasn’t going to go through this, not again, not ever.

“There he is, the ‘Ohio Miracle.’ So good to see you again.” Josh’s eyes widened. The man that had just entered was the older FBI agent with the sagging, sickly pale skin. His grin sent chills down Josh’s body.

“You,” he whispered. Josh became more frantic.

“Yes, me. You’d be surprised how easy it is to convince someone you’re an FBI agent. Your parents, the hospital, man, they just ate that shit up!” He began walking around the glass chamber, trying to observe every angle of Josh possible. “And I’m sure you have questions. What did you do to me, why did I think something different, blah, blah, blah. And I can explain everything.” with a sudden stop, the man slammed his hands hard on Josh’s right side, causing the timid boy to jump. “You can call me Virgil. This property, it belongs to me.”

“You kept me here for seven years.”

“And it would have been longer, but you were different. The effects of the implant weren’t the same for you as they were for everyone else.”

_ Implant? _ Josh swallowed nervously and went back to yanking on his cuffs. He needed out, now.

“These implants are my life work. I’ve spent ages on them, _ ages, _ perfecting them, making sure they worked. But I needed people. So this place was born. I could store my subjects and work on all of them. The first fifty or so passed away; the effects on their brains ended up being too much for their weak, feeble bodies to handle. After that though, they started to work. A person would die here and there, but I kept working, tinkering, until they were absolutely perfect. It’s inserted into the brain, and from there, I can have them do anything. I can control them, I can alter the way they think, and they have their lives changed.”

Josh stared, mortified, first at Virgil and then at the two men across from him. He had  _ kidnapped _ these people. He had kidnapped Josh!

“What did you do to me?” Josh asked timidly, his voice soft. He was too scared to find out.

“We’ll get to that Joshua, be patient. I took subjects from all over the United States. I asked for volunteers for a project, offered a great deal of money, which they never got of course. Once I had enough under my control, I started sending them out for others I thought would make good candidates. I’d scour the internet for persons of interest, and that’s how I found you. You were on the homepage of your high school website, looking sad, pitiful. Plus, you were blind. I had never tried anything on a blind person and was interested to see your results. You were different, Joshua. From the start I knew you’d be stronger. Once that implant was in your head, we had to cut you open, see if I could turn your pain sensors off. It took a while, evident from all those scars, but we finally managed to do it. Then we had to try it with your other senses. Turn off smell, feeling, hearing, taste, and sight.” Virgil’s grin grew wider. “In your case, turn on sight. It was incredible, this implant, with a combination of stem cells, was able to fix your ability to see. And you know, I can turn it back off just as easy.” to prove a point, Virgil lifted up a tiny, silver object that looked like a laser pointer. He pressed a button, and suddenly Josh couldn’t see. He was engulfed in darkness, just like he had been his entire life.

“I can’t see,” he began to panic.

“So hard to go back to something once you’ve gotten a taste of something dangerous, huh? These implants Joshua, they are incredible. They are a masterpiece. They allow you and everyone with one access to more of their brain than the human race could ever imagine; it allows them great abilities that normal humans don’t get. They allow us, the fragile human race, to be perfect soldiers. And they also let me place false memories in someone’s head.”

“You made me look like I was insane, going on about alien abductions.” Josh went back to frantically attempting to pull out of his restraints. He could feel blood trickling down his arms from where the metal had dug roughly into his wrists. “This whole time, it was you in my fucking head!”

“You’re a fool, but I guess I made you that way.” he clucked his tongue. “I had planned on finding you again to see how you had developed, but I guess now is as good as any. You were getting too close to discovering the truth. I hadn’t realized how intrigued you be with finding your captors. Sixteen year old Joshua Dun, blind as a bat, stumbling to his window only to fall into my arms. How tragic.”

“FUCK YOU!” Josh bellowed, unable to take this anymore. Death would have been better than this.

“Now here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll give you your sight back, but you have to do something for me. I need you to show me what you can do, how you’ve developed. If you die, that means I’m a failure.” There was a loud groaning noise before the roar of water flooding the chamber rang in Josh’s ears. It was sharp and cold as it swirled around his ankles.

Shitshitshit, this crazy man was trying to  _ drown _ him.

“What do you want me to do?” He couldn’t see a damn thing, his arms burned with lactic acid and his legs were already going numb from the temperature of the water. Virgil chuckled to himself.

“Follow your instincts Joshua.” His vision came back blurry and he blinked rapidly, painfully, as the scene unfolded in front of him. The water was pouring it fast, already up to his knees. His jeans weighed down his body as it rose higher, higher, higher, up to his stomach, his chest, his shoulders. Josh tilted his chin upwards and tried to gulp down as much oxygen as he could before it swallowed him whole.

His cheeks puffed out as he opened his eyes and looked around, trying to assess the situation. He had three minutes of oxygen before his lungs forced him to take in water. Maybe he could break the glass with a foot?

Josh floated barely above his chair and stretched as far as he could to kick the front of the tank. Red streams of blood danced above his wrists where they mixed with water, taunting him. The glass was too strong for him to break and Josh felt more defeated with each passing second. He was going to die here.

Josh kicked again, and again, but it was no use. It wouldn’t budge.

His chest was starting to hurt. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to hold his breath much longer. Josh settled back into the rooted chair and gave up, letting the water swallow him whole. His lungs burned, his head felt like it was swelling, and then-

The water moved and shifted around him until a small air pocket formed around his head. Josh coughed and sputtered while gasping for air at the same time. He was alive, holy shit he was alive, and  _ he did this. _ He made the water  _ move  _ just by thinking about it.

He let himself flop back against the chair as the water swirled away down a drain at his feet. Josh felt like he was ready to pass out any second. He was weak, and tired, and weighed down.

“Well, that’s damn impressive Joshua. I was beginning to think maybe you’d drown, but you really showed me. I wonder what would happen if I were to hurt that friend of yours. You think you’d be... stronger?”

Josh growled. “You better not fucking touch him, or I will personally rip you limb from limb!”

Virgil smiled politely. “That’s another experiment for another day. You deserve a break for a job well done.” he moved to unlock the tank and gestured to his brainwashed slaves. “Andrew, William, please take Mr. Dun back to his holding cell, if you don’t mind.”

Josh didn’t have the strength to fight as they unlocked his cuffs and began dragging him back down the hallway. He toppled onto the floor weakly and rolled onto his back, gasping for a few more deep breaths.

“Oh my god, what did they do to you?”

“Tried to drown me,” Josh coughed into his elbow and forced himself to sit up. “That bastard tried to  _ fucking drown _ me.”

Tyler’s hands flew up to his mouth and his eyes widened. Josh laughed dryly.

“This is worse Tyler, this is so much worse than before. He, he put some kind of implant in my brain, he can mess with my entire body, he can  _ control  _ me and I can’t do anything about it. I can’t fight it, and he, he wants to hurt you, and I’m so sorry.” Josh began to cry. He couldn’t help it. “I should have never gotten you involved in this mess, you should have never helped me-”

“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this. I came back because we’re in this together. I  _ wanted _ to help you Josh, and I’m going to. We’re going to get out of here, if it’s the last thing I do.”

Josh pulled off his sopping wet shirt and wiggled out of his jeans, ignoring Tyler’s eyes on him. That was the least of his concerns. “If I can get a hold on my powers, I might be able to break us out of here. I just, I need to concentrate. I need to clear my mind. They aren’t coming back here for a while.” He knelt down and began doing push-ups. If they were going to fight their way out, he needed to be ready.

“Josh, you almost died a minute ago. Go easy on yourself.” Tyler reached for a handful of their “nutritious food pellets” and bit into one, cringing at the taste. “God, these are dreadful.”

“We’re getting out of here,” Josh whispered, more to himself than Tyler. “We’re getting out of here.”

-

“Welcome back Joshua, so nice of you to bring a friend.” Virgil smiled as his brainwashed slave, William, shoved Josh into a chair and latched his restraints. Josh watched angrily, already trying to escape as Tyler was slammed down onto an all too familiar stainless steel table. Tyler coughed loudly and fidgeted uncomfortably.

“Don’t hurt him please,” Josh begged, figuring it might get him somewhere better than screaming, “He didn’t do anything, it was all me.”

“Don’t lie for him. I know he’s been helping you find information, no matter how small. He’s apart of this just as much as you are.” Virgil walked around the table and reached for Tyler’s jaw, his nails digging into soft flesh. “We’ll get an implant in you too, don’t you worry. For now, I need you to help me with Joshua.”

“Don’t touch him,” Josh growled. Virgil laughed.

“The pain won’t last very long. It never did for you, did it? We learned and adapted nicely, right?”

“Where’s your partner?” He thought about the other FBI impersonator.

“Around. He doesn’t like to be here for all the messy stuff.” With another chuckle, Virgil pulled a pocket knife from his jacket pocket and slide it open, pausing to admire the silver blade. Tyler turned pale.

“Please don’t,” his voice was softer this time, pleading, but deep down Josh knew what was about to happen. Virgil moved so quickly it took both of them a few seconds to comprehend that Tyler now had a giant cut on his left bicep gushing blood. Josh pulled up harder, ignoring the metal digging into the injured skin from the previous “experiment.”

“You can heal him Josh. Take care of your friend.”

“I c-can’t do that,” Josh couldn’t heal. That wasn’t possible. Moving things was one thing, but  _ healing _ a person?

“Sure you can. Humans can perform miracles when the time is right.” He sliced through the skin on Tyler’s arm, from the crook of his elbow down to his wrist. Tyler hissed in pain and strained against his restraints.

“Stop it. Please stop it.”

“Come on Joshua, show me what you can do. Show me how strong you are.” Another cut, this time on Tyler’s cheek. Josh’s blood was boiling. He wanted to  _ kill, _ he needed to get  _ free- _

Virgil grinned maliciously at Josh’s struggle before he wrapped both hands around the handle of the knife and slammed the blade down as hard as he could through Tyler’s left hand. The blade lodged itself into the table and Tyler screamed, screamed louder than Josh had ever heard anyone scream before in his life. Blood gushed everywhere like it was Niagra Falls and Josh used every bit of strength he could to push up on his metal cuffs.

“You FUCKING ASSHOLE!” He shouted, clenching his fists, as Tyler’s breathing grew frantic and sporadic.

“Tick tock Joshua, he won’t live much longer.” Virgil crossed his arms and backed towards the exit. “I’ll be in the control room observing. If I were you, I’d try and save your friend.”

The second the heavy double doors slammed shut, Josh suddenly gained superhuman strength and tore out of his restraints like they were made of paper. He was to Tyler’s side instantly and panicking immensely.

“Okay, okay, what do I do, what do I do,” he asked mostly towards himself as Tyler squeezed his eyes shut and took a few deep breaths.

“Get the fucking knife out of my hand,” Tyler offered.

Josh nodded. “Right.” he softly wrapped his hands around the handle of the switchblade and yanked sharply, grimacing at the amount of profanities that came out of Tyler’s mouth. Josh didn’t know how to heal people, how could he do this? He couldn’t, he wasn’t a  _ superhero- _

“I’m going to pass out or throw up really soon,” Tyler said weakly. He couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore. “Hurts too bad.”

“I can do this, I can do this,” Josh mumbled to himself as he rested his hands on top of Tyler’s mutilated hand gently enough not to cause him any more pain. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to forget about all the anger, all the stress, all the fear. He needed to save Tyler’s life, if he didn’t do this...

Tyler would die.

Josh thought about stabbing Virgil. He thought about Tyler dying in his arms, Tyler, who he didn’t even know very well and was stuck here now because of him. Who was here bleeding because of him.

“You-you’re doing it,” Tyler’s voice was breathy, but it caused Josh to crack an eyelid open. Sure enough, skin cells were shifting and weaving themselves back together like a needle and thread, until there was nothing but a few thin white scars and drying blood. Tyler’s face wasn’t as pale anymore, but he still puffed out heavy breaths as Josh undid his restraints and hovered his hands around him cautiously.

“Are you okay?”

“You, you did it,” was all he said. Tyler looked like he was going to hug Josh, but he pulled away right as Virgil’s wicked voice came over the loudspeaker again.

“Very impressive. You managed to do that in record time, I guess having your friend around is beneficial, huh?”

“He has no part of this! Leave him alone!” Josh yelled back, not even caring if that heinous man could hear him or not. Tyler tugged on his sleeve.

“It’s okay, I’m okay.”

“It’s not okay!” Josh turned back around. “He’s, he’s fucking using you to figure out what I can do, I can’t live life knowing this happened to you, and he can’t do it again.”

Tyler shook his head and coughed into the crook of his elbow. Just because he was no longer bleeding didn’t mean the pain was all gone. His whole body felt sore.

It didn’t take long before the two were being locked in their cells again. Neither had the strength to fight William or Andrew and opted for laying down on their cots. Nobody bothered them the entire rest of the day, not even Virgil. Josh assumed he was writing something down or figuring out what great experiment to do next.

Josh felt furious because he knew he couldn’t do anything to stop anyone. He was going to be forced to watch Tyler get hurt God knew how many times before they could get out and it was all his fault. No matter how many times he screamed for them to leave Tyler out of it, Josh knew they wouldn’t listen. Virgil wouldn’t listen. Because he had Josh wrapped around his little finger, could  _ control _ him and have him do anything he wanted.

Tyler shifted in his bed and rolled over towards the glass. Josh raised an eyebrow as turned to face him.

“Josh, this isn’t your fault. Stop blaming yourself.” he sighed. “You can’t keep thinking about this. It isn’t your fault, it’s all his. He’s the one who jammed the fucking knife through my hand. You healed me, you  _ saved _ me. And if you can keep this up, it will ultimately benefit me in the end. It will benefit us, because if you can get a hold on your powers or whatever you wanna call them, we could bust out of here and save everyone else. We could put Virgil down.”

“Okay, okay, you’re right. Just gotta focus on the good things here.” Josh rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling. He heard Tyler move.

“Let’s talk about something else.”

“Sure,” Josh agreed. He strung his fingers across his chest and thought about something they could talk about. “What’d you do after high school?”

“My original plan was to major in special education. I started classes at the community college downtown, but things got... difficult for me. I lacked enthusiasm. I felt like I didn’t belong. Things sort of went south after that, and I dropped.” he shrugged. “I decided to follow one of my hobbies further and went into songwriting. I’ve been doing that ever since. I don’t think I’m very good at it, and I haven’t gotten very far, but I’m trying. I’ve only managed to sell one, and it wasn’t for a ton of money. That’s one of the biggest reasons why my parents have been so frustrated with me lately. They think I’m an idiot for what I did. I just think that life is too short for you to not do what you love.”

“Good for you. I’m glad you’re doing what you love.”

“I wonder, if I could develop more in some instruments, if I could go solo or something, put it up on iTunes. I know a little bit of piano, and I have a ukulele stuffed in a box somewhere...” Tyler paused briefly and picked at the dried blood under his fingernails. “It’s putting music to the words that I struggle with.”

“Practice does make perfect.”

“Yeah, it does. What about you?” Tyler realized what he had just said and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re fine,” Josh reassured him. “I don’t know. I guess, I like to read. That’s what I did at home. Sometimes I’d listen to movies or something. I should go back and rewatch those now that I can see.”

“We’ll have a movie marathon,” Tyler promised, like that was a possibility. He was trying so damn hard to be optimistic. “With popcorn and chips and all kinds of sodas, and we’ll make ourselves sick.”

“We’ll stay up until dawn and go to Starbucks,” Josh continued softly. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Tyler looking at him.

“We can climb a hill and watch the sunrise with our coffee cups in our hands and drag all kinds of blankets up there.”

“The sunrise,” Josh scoffed, “Haven’t seen enough of those.”

“That’s what we’ll do then.” The two shared a smile before Tyler huffed again. “Josh, I’m really sorry about what I said. I don’t pity you. I was an asshole thinking what I did. I really, I do want to be your friend. I like being around you.”

“Water under the bridge,” Josh smiled again, “I like being around you too. It’s nice, knowing you were coming back for me. Even though all of this happened.”

“At least you’re not alone. I can’t imagine how horrible it would be for you to go through this again all by yourself. I’m glad we at least have each other to keep one another company. Even if we provide nothing more for each other than basic white noise.”

“Thank you Tyler.” Josh reached out to rest his palm against the fiberglass and felt a wave of relief fall over him when Tyler did the same.

“We’re going to get out of here soon. I promise.”

Josh believed him.


	6. Routine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They get rewarded, because hey, good boys get rewards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for torture/sexual content (and not at the same time.)

A week passed. At least, Josh thought it was a week, as he had counted seven mornings where he awoke to the shrill chime of the morning bell.

The days were long and painful, moreso for Tyler. He was thrust back onto that silver table often times without even getting the chance to eat or fully wake up, and Josh was shackled back to the chair, forced to watch Virgil carve Tyler up until Josh was able to save him. Josh didn’t understand what more Virgil wanted out of this. Sure, Josh could heal him. Sure, he was strong. But they were only repeating the same game, learning what they already knew, and Josh didn’t get it.

Until the morning Virgil walked into the room with a hammer instead of a knife.

Tyler had his eyes closed, which was understandable. Josh was sure he didn’t want to know what pain he was going to have to suffer through today. But Josh knew what was going to happen, and he was struggling so hard against his restraints that his wrists burned.

“I’m bored of doing the same routine every day, aren’t you?” he had an evil glint in his eye, and Josh growled. One day, he was going to  _ kill _ Virgil. There was no doubt about that.

“Don’t. Fucking. Touch. Him.”

“Well, there you go Joshua, already setting off that same boring routine. Let’s try something new!” With a loud chortle, Virgil raised the hammer high above his head and brought it down on Tyler’s chest at the same moment Josh screamed. Tyler’s back arched upwards as he let out a scream of his own, his fingers curling over his chained wrists. Josh pulled harder, willing himself to break free, to wrap his hands around Virgil’s neck and squeeze until his face turned purple. Tyler most definitely had broken ribs now, or even internal bleeding, and if Josh didn’t get there, he’d die, he’d die, just like every other day.

“You bastard, why can’t you hurt me instead?” His blood pounded too loudly in his ears for him to scream, and he knew there would be no point. Tyler breathed heavily, uncomfortably, and Virgil continued to laugh. This was all a game to him. They were nothing more than an experiment.

“I’m curious to see if you can heal more than a few cuts and scratches,” he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Tick tock, his organs may be sloshing.”

Tyler did look pretty pale, and Josh himself felt ready to pass out. He wasn’t strong enough to keep this up, he didn’t know how Tyler was, how he didn’t pass out himself with the amount of pain he was put through. The both of them were exhausted.

The minute Virgil had left the room, Josh finally managed to rip out and was to Tyler’s side, his hands sliding Tyler’s shirt up so he had access to the damage. Ginormous purple bruises were already forming when Josh laid his hands down softly and willed himself to save Tyler’s life. The healing process took so much more longer than it had in the past, and every time Josh looked up at Tyler’s pained expression, his slick, sweat covered forehead and his hollowed cheeks puffing out breaths, trying so hard not to pass out, Josh knew he had to keep going, keep focused. He was getting better at it, that was for sure. The whole thing was strange, because he didn’t know if it was working, he couldn’t see Tyler’s ribs.

The whole thing felt like hours, but eventually Tyler’s breathing slowed down and he stretched a hand out to weakly grab Josh’s wrist. Josh flinched, but didn’t pull away.

“Do, do you feel any better?”

“Yeah,” he responded weakly. Virgil’s voice came over the loudspeaker.

“My staff can assist Tyler in getting to the infirmary. I think it’s best to see if you really did help him.” there was a beep as the intercom clicked off, and Josh looked back down at Tyler’s chest. The bruises were still there.

Josh was thrown back into his prison cell, and he was forced to miserably watch William and Andrew drag Tyler down the hallway.

He felt sick, so fucking sick, but he knew he had to keep it together and keep what little food he had down for when Tyler came back. He couldn’t retch in their only source of clean water, not again.

Josh dropped to his knees in front of the stream and pulled off his shirt, tossing it onto the cot. He shoved his hands into the freezing cold water and cupped it so he could drink and drink until he couldn’t drink anymore. After that, he splashed some water on his face, ran it down his arms and bare torso, and put his shirt back on.

He popped some pellets into his mouth and laid down on his cot to wait for Tyler. Josh hoped he did it. He hoped Tyler would come back fine and that he wasn’t dying on a shitty makeshift hospital bed.

It turned out that Josh had healed Tyler’s ribs, if not made them stronger. Tyler muttered a thanks before he turned on his side and went to sleep.

That had been on the fifth day of being here. The sixth day they were allowed a break. The seventh day the two woke up to the whoosh of their doors opening as they were grabbed and forced down the hallway, their bare feet dragging painfully against the rough floor. Instead of the usual compact stainless steel room, they were taken to a long room that looked like it might have been a dining hall once upon a time. Josh was strapped once again to a chair, while Tyler was taken to the opposite side of the room and shackled to the wall. Josh had to squint to make out Tyler’s feared expression.

Instead of leaving, William and Andrew both stayed, positioning themselves in front of Tyler protectively.

“Now I know the both of you are probably very confused, and don’t worry, I totally get it,” Virgil’s voice rang over the intercom, “But today we’re trying something different, and I’m going to monitor.” Josh watched as William ventured over to a cabinet pressed against the wall and pulled out a bow and a sheath of arrows. His throat clicked.  _ No. Oh please no. _

Tyler thrashed like he was being shocked as he watched William lined an arrow up with the bow and cocked it, pointing the tip right towards Tyler’s forehead. Josh screamed as loud as he could. They couldn’t do this, they  _ couldn’t,  _ they were going to fucking  _ murder him. _

“DON’T! PLEASE DON’T!”

“Calm down Joshua, nobody’s going to touch your friend. All I want to see is what else you can do, that’s all.”

“You fucking know what I can do!” Josh shouted back at the intercom. “Stop hurting him! There’s no need!” He felt like crying. He hated how defenseless he was against these people, against Virgil. He was nothing but a crazy old man and yet Josh couldn’t do anything to stop him, to get himself and Tyler out. Virgil could control him, could make him like every other person in this facility. They weren’t safe.

“This is what we have to do to find out more about you. Look at yourself Joshua. Look what you can do. Aren’t you interested in finding out more?”

“You did this to me!” he was crying now, rivers of heavy, hot tears. “I never asked for this. I don’t want to know about this.” Josh pictured that arrow going through Tyler’s forehead and killing him instantly. He pictured having to tell Tyler’s family that their son was dead and it was all Josh’s fault. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t.

“You’re so talented Joshua. Find it in yourself to understand that.” Virgil paused briefly before he said the words Josh prayed he wouldn’t say. “William, line up the shot.”

Tyler whimpered. Josh could barely see him and he continued to scream as hard as he could. Whoever William was, he wasn’t like this. He was being controlled, and if he realized he killed someone, he’d never forgive himself either.

He let go. The arrow whizzed through the air, and somehow, Josh found himself catching it mere inches before it pierced Tyler’s skin. He stared at the object in his hand curiously, his breathing hard, before it clattered to the ground. Josh realized he had somehow gotten from one end of the hall to the other in the time it took for William to shoot the arrow.

“Your wrists are bleeding,” Tyler murmured, his eyes wide. Josh glanced down at his shaking hands, and sure enough, his wrists were coated in blood, probably from when he ripped them from his cuffs. Adrenaline was all that was masking the pain as he reached up to undo Tyler’s restraints. He about crashed into Josh’s arms, and for once, Josh was perfectly okay with touching him.

“I’m so sorry,” Josh mumbled repeatedly into the crook of Tyler’s neck, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Slow clapping broke them apart, and Josh stared in fury as Virgil walked into the room. He waved his hand, causing William and Andrew to flank his left and right sides. “My goodness Joshua, you are  _ fast.” _

“You got what you wanted,” Josh’s hand was tight around Tyler’s wrist, “You know everything I can do now. Please.  _ Please _ stop hurting him.”

A toothy grin spread across Virgil’s face. “You boys have been so good for me this past week. You deserve a reward. William, Andrew, if you would, take the happy couple to the suite upstairs. Joshua, I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

Neither one of them had the strength, per usual, to fight the strong grip on their shirt collars as they were dragged back down the long, twisting hallway and up one flight of stairs. The halls never seemed to end, there was so much they had never even seen, how the hell were they supposed to get out? They would be stuck here for so long, for another seven years, or maybe eight, or nine, or ten-

Tyler was slammed against the pair of double doors as Andrew inputted the code into the room and tossed him in like he was a ragdoll. Josh was next, tumbling over his own feet as he landed hard on the carpeted ground.

“They were going to shoot an arrow through your head,” Josh whispered as he stared up at the ceiling. He couldn’t be bothered to look around the room quite yet. “They were actually planning on murdering you.”

“He knew you’d save me,” Tyler replied, pushing himself off the ground. “Josh, look.”

So he did. The room was huge, complete with a king sized bed and a mini fridge. There was even an ensuite with a shower  _ and _ a bathtub. Josh scoffed. He hadn’t showered in so long, he felt disgusting, and was sure Tyler felt the same.

Josh watched Tyler pad over to the mini fridge and pull it open, where it was filled to the brim with snacks and drinks. Tyler laughed out loud.

“Fuck man, I feel like I haven’t seen real food in years.” He pulled out a capri sun and offered one to Josh, who happily took it. He then pulled out another and two apples. “Guess we’ll start off healthy, huh? Ease back into real food?”

“That’s such bullshit,” Josh concluded, as he dug the straw into his capri sun and downed the whole thing in mere seconds. He ventured over to the fridge himself and pulled out a string of cheese sticks and a yogurt. “God. I’m so hungry.”

“And we can shower too,” Tyler nodded towards the bathroom. “Wonder how long they’ve been preparing this room for us.”

“Hey, we were ‘good boys,’” replied Josh mockingly as he sat down at the end of the bed and tried very hard not to eat ravenously. Tyler didn’t seem to mind though, as he was eating like he hadn’t seen real food in days. Josh snorted. They _hadn’t_ seen real food in days.

“You ‘anna shower first?” asked Tyler with a mouth full of apple.

“Sure.” They finished up their meal in silence. Josh set his trash on top of the dresser and pulled open a drawer, his mouth falling open slightly when he noticed all the clothes neatly folded inside. He could change into some new clothes and ditch the old ones.

“Any your size?” Tyler peered around Josh where his body was blocking the view.

“Uhm, yeah actually.” he decided on a plain black t-shirt, some sweatpants, and a (hopefully) clean pair of boxers. “I know this is a little suspicious and all, but-”

“Let’s just have one night to enjoy ourselves, okay?” Tyler was smiling when Josh turned to face him. “Let’s pretend we’re in a hotel or something, enjoying the night out.”

“Okay,” Josh could humor himself for one night, “Where are we staying?”

“We’re in Vegas,” replied Tyler like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “At the Bellagio.”

Josh waited for him to say more. Tyler blinked.

“Oh, right. Uhm, it’s a really nice hotel. Trust me.”

Josh trusted him. He gathered his clothes together, nodded towards Tyler, and pointed towards the bathroom. “I won’t use all the hot water,” he promised.

“Okay. See you soon.”

Josh ended up taking a thirty minute shower. He didn’t mean to, but the water felt so nice against his skin after going a whole week without showering. He assumed he wouldn’t have access to a shower again in quite some time, so he shampooed his hair twice and used a small amount of conditioner to avoid grease buildup. Then he washed his body with peach body wash three times and rested his head against the tile of the shower.

He remembered those seven years so vividly. He was alone, locked in a cage, all by himself, only used as a carving station. He never got to stay in a room like this. He never got to shower. The stream was his only source of water and occasionally he’d soak his hair in it.

It was awful, those seven years. He’d never let it happen again.

Josh shaved while Tyler showered. Tyler didn’t take nearly as long.

He looked away while Tyler dressed himself and joined him by the mirror.

“I’m kinda sad,” Tyler murmured as he reached for a razor out of the mirror and the can of shaving cream Josh had in his hand. Josh passed it to him.

“Why?”

“I dunno. I kind of liked the scruff you had going on.”

Josh scoffed. “Why, because I can actually grow facial hair?”

“That’s harsh.” Tyler grinned. “I think it suits you.”

“Just wait, in a week’s time I’ll have plenty more. Don’t know when we’ll be allowed in here again.”

“Josh, we can come back to the Bellagio anytime we want!” Tyler was still continuing his charade, which maybe Josh was a little thankful for. It was good that Tyler was so calm about this stuff, especially because he was getting the short end of it.

“You’re right. We can.”

After the two finished shaving, they wandered back into the bedroom and went back to eating in silence. Josh ate an apple of his own while Tyler munched down a couple cheese sticks. Josh couldn’t help but glance over at him at the edge of the bed. He was beautiful, Josh concluded.

“What’s up?” Tyler cocked an eyebrow.

“Nothing.” With a blush spreading across his nose, Josh looked down and tossed his apple core into the trash. He wiped his hands on his pants. “Were there toothbrushes in the bathroom?”

“I think so.”

“I’m gonna go brush my teeth.” Tyler nodded, and Josh turned on his heel to pad into the bathroom. His hands were shaking as he pulled a toothbrush out of his container and ran it under the water.

Was Tyler attractive to him? Did he find guys attractive?

He really hadn’t gotten the chance to decide who was attractive to him. He couldn’t see, and no one ever willingly talked to him. Except Tyler.

“Except Tyler,” he whispered under his breath as he squirted some toothpaste onto his toothbrush.

Tyler was attractive. He was  _ very _ attractive. His skin was the colour of caramel and his eyes were like espresso beans and his hair looked so fluffy-

Josh pulled his toothbrush out of his mouth and sighed. What was wrong with him? They were trapped in a prison. As much as he wanted to believe it, this wasn’t the Bellagio. Tomorrow Tyler would be chained to a table and Josh would be strapped to a chair and chaos would ensue just like it always did. He didn’t have time to think about this stuff. They needed to get out  _ alive, _ and then maybe he could figure that shit out.

_ Later,  _ he told himself as he finished brushing his teeth.

-

The bell chimed that it was nine, but the lamp beside them remained bright. Josh sighed with relief and ran his fingers down his tattooed arm.

Tyler glanced over. They were sitting side by side at the top of the bed; Josh thought Tyler had nodded off. Apparently not.

“Is your tattoo bothering you?”

“No,” Josh murmured. “I don’t remember getting it though. I know now it wasn’t aliens, but I still don’t remember.”

“Maybe they did it to you while you were unconscious, or under some sort of brainwashing simulation.”

Josh shrugged. “I guess that makes sense. But why?”

“So they can identify you. You know Will and Andrew both have tattoos too? Will has his on his collarbone and Andrew has an entire tattoo sleeve under his suit jacket.”

“How do you know that?”

“I put up a fight,” he grinned. Josh chuckled a little.

“Makes sense I guess. Hard to miss a guy with a whole tree on his arm.”

“They made you think you were trapped in some sort of alternate dimension with all those colours swirling around your head. I can’t imagine...” Tyler trailed off and sighed. “I can’t believe you were here for  _ seven _ years.”

“Me neither,” Josh admitted.

Tyler’s hand hovered over Josh’s arm. He met Josh’s eyes.

“Do you mind?” he gestured to Josh’s tattoo sleeve, to which Josh nodded. He trusted Tyler. Tyler could touch him.

His fingers were cold and caused Josh to flinch as they traced the outline of the tree, the sun, and all the swirling colours in between. Josh closed his eyes and leaned his head back. It felt nice, he decided. Really, really nice.

“It really is beautiful,” whispered Tyler, “even if crazy people did it to you, at least it looks awesome. This is some professional work.”

“Cool. I’ll take it.”

Tyler laughed quietly as his fingers trailed to the bottom of Josh’s t-shirt. He tugged. “Lemme see your scars.” And for once, Josh didn’t care about that. 

He tugged his shirt off with ease and tossed it to the floor. Tyler’s hands were on his stomach in seconds, tracing over every white, ragged line. Josh’s eyes remained closed, and Tyler didn’t dare to breath. Moments ticked by.

“There’s so many of them,” he said sadly. Josh knew that.

“Yeah. It’s a little ugly.”

“No,” his voice was firm, “It’s not. You’re not.” Josh opened his eyes. Tyler was looking at him with so much hope that it made him feel at ease. He  _ believed _ Tyler.

“You’re brave,” Tyler’s voice was gentle. “We are going to get out of here alive. Do you believe that?”

“Yes,” he nodded. “I believe that.” Tyler was very close to him now, and his lips hovered mere inches away from Josh’s. A smile tugged at Josh’s own lips.

“It’s you and me.” Tyler finally closed the gap, and Josh sank back into the pillows as Tyler pulled himself into Josh’s lap. Hands snaked behind Josh’s neck, tightened around Tyler’s hips, as they kissed; it took all of five seconds before Josh deepened it, his tongue swiping along Tyler’s bottom lip.

“Back in glass cages tomorrow,” Josh breathed as Tyler’s lips slid down to his neck. He groaned in frustration when Tyler’s teeth sank into his skin. They shouldn’t be  _ doing this, not now- _

“No glass cages at the Bellagio,” Tyler said matter-of-factly, pushing Josh farther into the bed. He slotted a knee in between Josh’s legs.

Josh was a shell of a person. Tyler had the time to gain experience; Josh had spent seven years locked away by himself. With a sigh, Josh rested his hands on Tyler’s shoulders and pushed gently, causing Tyler to pull off of him. He looked pained.

“What’s wrong?”

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Josh said. He curled his fingers in his shirt. “Tyler, we were kidnapped, we’ve been gone for a week-”

“Exactly,” Tyler argued. “We’ve been gone for a week. We’ve  _ suffered _ for a week. And now we have this whole place to ourselves for one night. One night to make the best of things.” His hand snaked back behind Josh’s neck as he rested his forehead against Josh’s. Josh closed his eyes, his breaths short and quiet. “Do you want this?”

“Yes,” Josh whispered. A shiver ran down his spine when Tyler pressed his lips to the corner of Josh’s mouth. “I need this.”

“Yeah,” Tyler’s voice was hushed. Josh let himself forget where he really was. They were at the Bellagio, out for the night, hanging out as friends. Well, sort of. And if Tyler could pretend, so could he. Tyler was cautious where he put his hands. Josh was already shirtless, and Tyler’s fingers were cold as they trailed down his back to his hips.

“If you want me to stop-”

“Keep going,” Josh demanded, leaning his head back. A small, half-smile rose to his lips as Tyler moved to kiss his neck.  _ Tyler Joseph _ of all people was the last person Josh expected to be kissing. Tyler had been a normal kid in high school; he played basketball, he got good grades, people liked him. Josh knew those things because they were things everyone knew. And Tyler talked to him. Tyler  _ talked to him. _

He realized now that even without knowing what Tyler looked like, he had known Tyler was attractive. He had a charming personality, and even now, locked away, being tortured, he kept his head held high. He was selfless.

Tyler was kissing right under his jaw now, and Josh, ever so greedy, tugged on the hem of Tyler’s shirt. It clung to his body loosely, and Josh was sure if he pulled hard enough he could tear it off of him. Fortunately Tyler seemed to understand his silent plea and paused to pull his own shirt off. The last time Josh had seen Tyler shirtless had been months ago, when he was mowing his lawn. That had been one glance; This was  _ so much better.  _ Tyler was gorgeous. His muscles bulged and his tattoos complimented his tanned skin perfectly. Oh jeez, Josh wanted him, Josh  _ really _ wanted him.

He ran his hands down Tyler’s chest roughly, curling his nails in Tyler’s hips when Tyler ground down against him. Josh could feel Tyler’s clothed cock drag across his and his nostrils flared.

“Shit,” he breathed. Tyler’s hand slid down to the waistband of his borrowed sweats.

“You’re hard.” Tyler commented blatantly.

“So are you,” Josh shot back. He lifted his hips off the bed and sucked in a breath as Tyler pulled his sweats and boxers off and tossed them to the floor. Tyler’s hand clenched around his thigh and Josh was pushing upwards again, shifting against the covers. His eyes rolled up to the ceiling as Tyler moved closer, his fingers shifting to trail down his inner thigh, drawing dangerously close to Josh’s hard, pink cock. And the minute Tyler’s hand wrapped around it, Josh was melting, sinking farther and farther away from reality as he let himself believe that the two really were in Las Vegas for the weekend.

Tyler’s thumb swiped at some of the precome beading at the head and used it to slick him up, sliding his hand slowly all the way to the base of Josh’s cock. Josh pressed upwards, trying to relieve some tension. He needed this, he needed Tyler-

_ “Tyler,” _ he gasped, letting himself glance down at the younger man. His pleas were laced with so much desperation as he continued to mumble Tyler’s name as Tyler himself kicked off his pants and pulled himself further into Josh’s lap, reaching out to kiss him, to  _ satisfy _ him, because Tyler needed this just as much as Josh.

“Touch me again,” Josh begged against Tyler’s mouth; He opened his mouth slightly to let Tyler’s tongue inside. Tyler grinded down against him once more, and finally free of clothing, their hard cocks brushed against each other, causing arousal to rocket down their backs and boil in their blood. Tyler nodded. Yes, he could do that.

Josh groaned loudly, probably too loudly, as Tyler spit into his hand and reached below to wrap it around both their cocks.

“Fuck,” Tyler hand clenched, it had been too long since he had felt,  _ that, _ and he paused to let Josh shift. Josh didn’t need to say anything, one glance at his pleading eyes was all Tyler needed to keep going. He kissed Josh passionately, his hand pumping quicker, tightening just a little bit, his body pushing closer, wanting to protect Josh, to let him know he cared,  _ god, _ he cared, and Josh let himself go slack so Tyler could do what he pleased. Josh had never been in a position like this. He didn’t know himself, but he trusted Tyler, and it felt good, it felt so  _ fucking good- _

The lightbulb in the lamp next to them shattered, plunging the room into darkness. They both ignored it.

Tyler pushed his boundaries, pressing harder, harder, strengthening the tension between the two of them like a rubber band. Josh’s head lolled onto his shoulder as Tyler’s name left his mouth once more, pleasure building. Tyler was so very important to him, he meant more to Josh than Josh could have ever guessed.

They were a mixture of moans and grunts until Josh hit his climax, coming all over his stomach in white ribbons, with Tyler following soon after. He let go, his hands moving to Josh’s shoulders as he rested his forehead against the other man.

A minute passed. Tyler didn’t move. “You good?”

He thought about it, and it was a terribly hard thing for him to do.  “I’m good,” Josh finally concluded.

“You still think we shouldn’t have done that?”

“I busted a lightbulb.”

“Guess being angry isn’t the only thing that makes your powers go a little crazy.” Tyler leaned over to press a kiss to Josh’s shoulder before he rolled over and flopped down next to him. “Here, I’ll grab a towel.”

“Thanks,” Josh called after him as Tyler disappeared into the bathroom and came back moments later with a fluffy grey towel over his arm. He cleaned himself off first and tossed it to Josh. Tyler settled back down on the bed as Josh wiped the come off his dick and let it fall into the pile with his clothes. He sighed. “What the fuck.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know.” Josh shook his head and reached for the other lamp on his side. He could at least bring a little bit of light into the room. When he glanced over at Tyler and noticed his worry, he immediately wanted to start kissing him again. Tyler’s eyes were so dark, and his face looked so innocent.

That was when he noticed the blinking camera in the corner of the room behind Tyler’s head.

“Oh my god Tyler, look,” Josh pointed, causing Tyler to turn around. Tyler’s brow furrowed.

“Fuck,” he muttered, “He was watching us.”

Josh buried his face in his hands and groaned. “Oh my god.”

“No. You know what? Fuck it. Good. I’m glad we did that. Josh, I  _ like _ you. I’ve liked you since high school. And I know I was a dick, but I wanted you back in my life. I honestly did, not just because I wanted redemption. You let me back in, and I don’t want to lose you again.”

“I like you too,” Josh replied, “You make me feel safe. And you keep me calm.”

“We’re going to get out of here, I promise you that. I’m not going to stop until we’re out of here. I’m not letting you go.” He paused, his mouth pressing into a thin line. “We’ll move to Michigan. I want an apartment of my own out there. I’ll start writing music for my songs. I’ll get a job, start raking in some more income.”

“Michigan,” Josh said dreamily, “People will leave me alone out there.”

“We’ll find some beachfront property.”

“I’ll get a job too. As long as we’re far away from here.” He shook his head sadly. “I love my family, and I know they’re worried for me, but they’re still trying to love the old me. They don’t understand that I need a different kind of love now. One that you’re able to give me.”

Tyler half-smiled. “I’m glad I can do that for you.”

“We’ll get out of here,” Josh confirmed. He pushed himself off the bed and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. “We should probably shower tonight. Don’t really know when they’ll come back for us, and I really don’t want to smell like sex.”

That got Tyler to laugh. He slid off the bed and followed Josh into the bathroom where he watched him turn the facet. “I really liked that Josh. I really like you.”

“I really like you too.” Tyler kissed him again. It was soft, and far from anything arousing, but it was nice, and let Josh continue to think they really were in the Bellagio.

“No glass cages in the Bellagio,” he murmured, repeating Tyler’s words from earlier. Tyler’s grip tightened on Josh’s arm.

“No glass cages in the Bellagio.”

That night, after they were both clean and dressed in new clothes, Tyler slid an arm around Josh’s waist and let Josh rest his head on his chest. He sank his fingers into Josh’s dark hair and smiled as Josh hummed in satisfaction.

“Feel good?”

“Yeah. Really good.” he cleared his throat. “Thank you Tyler, for everything. The fact that this is happening, that we’re together here right now, it’s unbelievable.”

“It is pretty unbelievable.” Tyler breathed deeply in through his nose. “All of the people here, the ones he’s using as slaves, how long do you think they’ve been here? Do you think they were tortured and trapped in glass cages too?”

“Yeah,” Josh replied. “He keeps them until they can fully comply and won’t put up a fight. That’s the only way he can fully brainwash them. They have to be weak, and not expecting it. That’s why he was never able to take me. That’s probably why I was dumped.”

“You’re strong,” Tyler murmured, gripping strands of Josh’s hair tightly. “And you’re fucking brave.”

“Says you. Your pain tolerance is pretty incredible. I don’t understand how you don’t pass out when he-” Josh stopped himself and let his fists clench by his sides. He almost forgot that Tyler had been brutally tortured this whole week. This room was getting to him.

Tyler didn’t need him to finish the sentence to understand. “I know you’ll heal me. I trust you.”

Josh adjusted himself and picked a loose thread off of Tyler’s tee. “Don’t let go of me,” he whispered.

“I would never.”


	7. Glitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All they want is for the torture to stop.

Nobody came for them in the morning. The bell chimed seven times and Tyler stretched his limbs, only to realize Josh wasn’t laying on him anymore. His eyebrows scrunched in confusion as he looked around the empty room.

“Josh?” He pushed off the bed and padded to the doors. Tyler wrapped his hand around the doorknob and jiggled it, only to see it was still locked. He sighed, turned on his heel, and headed towards the bathroom. “Josh? Where’d you go?”

Hidden by shadows, Josh stood in the corner of the bathroom, unmoving, his body tense. Tyler felt the colour drain from his face as he forced himself to move closer. “Josh?” he tried one more time, his voice timid, because deep down, Tyler knew what had happened.

Josh’s eyes were glossed over with that eerie white film William and Andrew that, that everyone in this place had. That’s when he knew he could deny it no longer.

“Oh fuck Josh, no, not now!” Tyler reached out and grabbed ahold of Josh’s shoulders. He shook him violently. “Snap out of it!” Josh didn’t move. Tyler knew it was no use. He remembered what Josh had said just like night. You had to be weak, you had to be caught off-guard, you had to not expect it. That was the point of this room. Tyler had made things so much worse with all his “let’s pretend” shit. He wanted to punch himself in the face.

Almost as if it was the universe’s idea of a sick joke, the intercom beeped. “Good morning Tyler. As you can see, Josh really isn’t himself.”

Tyler didn’t say anything. He knew engaging would give Virgil the exact reaction he was expecting. Instead, he backed himself towards the sink until the counter dug into his back. Josh stood eerily still, his eyes unblinking. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t lose Josh, not now, not after all they had been through-

“Joshua, if you could bring Mr. Joseph back into the operating room for me, I’d absolutely love that. I unlocked the door, so your job is ever so easy.” Josh wasted no time grabbing Tyler tightly and yanking his wrists behind his back. Tyler winced. He forgot how strong and fast Josh was. And it was all Virgil’s fault.

The door was open when Josh pushed Tyler back through the bedroom. Tyler tried to fight against Josh’s grip, but the second he tried to pull out, Josh only tightened.

“Please,” Tyler whispered as Josh began moving him back down the hallway. “I know you’re in there, I know you can get out, remember, you said you were strong, that they couldn’t get to you. You can’t leave me here by myself Josh.”

Josh did not answer. Tyler felt like screaming.

Instead of being strapped to an operating table this time, Tyler was forced into a chair, where Josh tightened his restraints just enough for him to grimace uncomfortably. He then watched angrily as Josh was strapped into the chair parallel to him, and his wrists were cuffed by Virgil himself. Tyler fidgeted, his knuckles turning white from gripping the arms of the chair too tightly.

“You’re an asshole,” he said calmly, despite being so far from calm. Virgil stepped back and crossed his arms across his chest, a smug grin on his face. He pressed his tiny silver laser pointer and gestured to Josh with his shoulder, whose face crumpled in confusion as he shook his head rapidly. Tyler’s eyes widened and he leaned forward as much as he could. “Josh? You okay?”

“I’m fine, where...” he trailed off once he caught sight of the familiar room they were in. Josh bit his lip. “How did we get here?” He looked over at Virgil. “What did you do?”

“All I did was fully activate your implant. Don’t you worry your pretty little face Joshua; no one was hurt. All you did was follow instructions to a tee.”

“He can brainwash you,” Tyler translated, “You brought me here.”

“I... I  _ brought _ you here? Oh no.” Josh yanked as hard as he could. He was furious. He told himself he’d never get this low, he’d never let them take his mind, but last night... 

Josh sighed. Virgil had won. Josh was his pawn, just like he knew he’d be from the start. They were never going to get out of here, not when Virgil could switch Josh’s mind over to “OBEY” mode.

Virgil feigned offence. “A fully activated implant is far from  _ oh no, _ Joshua. It means you were successful. I knew that room would be a good idea.” He let out a loud laugh. “And the two of you got busy last night. Never thought I’d switch on the cam to see  _ that.” _

Josh eyed Tyler, whose Adam’s Apple bobbed rapidly. Josh swallowed nervously himself.

“If your powers act the way they are when you’re furious, I can only imagine what they’re like when you’re aroused. The lightbulb was only the beginning. You’re definitely the strongest out of anyone I’ve had the honor to work with.”

“Honor?” Josh scoffed. “You fucking watched us have  _ sex! _ That’s all kinds of fucked up! You’re fucked up!”

“I’m fucked up? Have you seen yourself?” His grin sent shivers down both their spines. “You’re the one who spent seven years locked alone in a glass cage.”

“Go fuck yourself!” Josh growled, pushing his head as far out as it would go as he strained his muscles. “We’re going to stop you, you aren’t going to get away with this-”

“But Joshua, I already have.” Virgil’s smile deepened. “So here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to put you back to sleep, and we’re going to see if it is even possible for you to snap out of it, if someone hurts your precious Tyler. Or maybe even... kisses your precious Tyler.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Josh shouted, “I’ll fucking rip you limb from limb!”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Virgil chortled, and seconds later Josh’s eyes were white again, his expression stoic. Tyler’s heart dropped. He could feel tears starting to slide down his cheeks.

Virgil was going to hurt him and Josh wouldn’t be able to help him this time.

“Now, I hardly think this will work,” Virgil busied himself with a tray of terrifying torture tools and pushed it up next to Tyler’s chair, “but it’s worth a shot, don’t you think?”

“I don’t think so,” Tyler replied miserably. “You already know he won’t be able to break out of it.”

Virgil reached for a rather large knife and a scalpel. He inspected them like he was about to perform surgery. “You love him, don’t you? Are you falling in love with him?”

Tyler didn’t reply. Virgil pushed the tip of the knife into the crook of his arm and slashed downwards, opening a pretty deep gash in Tyler’s forearm. Tyler’s eyes squeezed shut and he bit his tongue.

Josh didn’t even flinch.

Virgil pushed the scalpel down inside the gash and made it bigger. Tyler hissed in pain. He tried to remember last night, having Josh in his arms, last night when things were so much better, when they were safe and calm and  _ warm... _

“Surely you have to be falling in love with him. It’s a guilt thing, y’know. You abandoned him. That’s why we were able to steal him away.”

“I didn’t abandon him,” Tyler’s arm twitched; his veins bulged against his blood stained skin. It hurt, it hurt so bad. “I liked being around him, I wanted to be his friend-”

“You didn’t try hard enough. He was so alone before we rescued him.” Virgil plunged the knife into Tyler’s thigh, causing a loud howl to rip out of him. His hands shook terribly. “We  _ saved _ him.”

“Please,” Tyler whispered, his eyelids fluttering. Josh told him he was incredible for having such a high pain tolerance, but now, Tyler didn’t think he could stay awake any longer. Josh didn’t move a single muscle, and he never would until Virgil snapped his stupid fingers. Just like he said, it was never going to work. This was just an excuse for him to hurt Tyler.

“You were never part of the plan,” Virgil’s lips pressed against the shell of Tyler’s ear. “You were the distraction, you brought him right into our arms the first time, and this time, you’re the burden. You gained his trust. He  _ likes _ you. So I guess now we have to keep you around.”

The room started spinning, and ever so curiously, the colours flashed between bright and dreary. Tyler blinked a few times. The pain was starting to make him delirious.

“He wants it out,” Tyler whispered. He let his head loll onto his shoulder.

“He gets it removed, he’s blind again. He’s  _ dead _ again.” Virgil grinned. Tyler blinked, and the man with the saggy old skin turned into a faceless man with grey skin. The room was dull, void of anything bright, almost like there was a filter over his eyes, blocking him from seeing the truth. Unless the truth was the other way around.

The faceless creature was gone only seconds later, replaced by Virgil’s heinous smirk. He let Josh out of his restraints, pushed him to the floor, and left the room while Josh came to his senses. Tyler stared down at him, his breathing shallow. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stay awake this time.

“Tyler? Oh my god, Tyler!” Josh scrambled to Tyler’s side, where he immediately wrapped both his hands around the hilt of the knife and yanked it out of Tyler’s thigh. Tyler screamed, his eyes jamming shut as blood began spurting everywhere. He felt Josh’s cold hands press down on his wound. “You’re okay Tyler, I can fix this, I can fucking fix this-”

“I believe you,” Tyler nodded. He didn’t open his eyes.

“You’re okay,” Josh was hysterical now. Tyler didn’t need to see to hear how wrecked Josh was. “I can fix you, you’re okay.”

“I’m going to sleep,” Tyler told him.

“Please don’t,” Josh was sobbing now. “Stay awake for me Tyler, stay awake. You can’t sleep right now.”

“Hurts.”

“I know, I’m getting there, I’m getting there.” Josh moved a hand to the gash on Tyler’s arm. “I need more access to your skin, your pants are blocking the way, fuck!” Josh was panicking. Tyler didn’t say anything, but he felt Josh’s hands shifting around his waist, tugging down on his pants. The fabric stuck a little to his wound and stung when Josh pulled it apart. Tyler wondered if Josh would be able to heal him in time. When he had to mend Tyler’s broken ribs, that had taken hours. Tyler was losing blood so quickly it might be too late.

“Josh, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

“No it’s NOT! IT’S NOT FUCKING OKAY!” Tyler cracked an eyelid open long enough to watch Josh smear blood all over his face. He went back to pressing his hands to Tyler’s wounds. “I hate it here. I hate it here. I hate him.”

“It’s okay,” Tyler said again, leaning his head back. He felt so sick. His head felt heavy. And finally, for the first time, Tyler fell unconscious.

-

The two were taken back to their prison cells. Josh went right away, forced to pace back and forth anxiously while Tyler was taken to the infirmary to make sure Josh had healed him fully. Tyler didn’t come back until half an hour later (Josh was counting every second) and was laid down on his cot. They hadn’t bothered to clean him off, and he was still coated head to toe in sticky crimson.

Josh pressed his hands to the fiberglass wall and stared at William pleadingly. “Is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay.”

William didn’t even so much as look up at him, nonetheless speak as he left the cell, secured the door, and walked out of the room. Josh was met with the sound of the stream and the silence of his dark thoughts. He chewed on a hangnail and continued to pace the small area. Tyler had to be okay, right? He was back here after all, if he had died, they wouldn’t have put him back in a cell. Still, there was a clench in his gut that told him Tyler was long gone.

Why was he still in here anyways? Virgil could use him now, and they had proven that. Josh couldn’t get out of his hypnosis no matter what he tried to do. They were doomed. They were never going to get out of here. There was no use.

He was in the middle of his third set of sit ups when Tyler awoke. Josh slowed to a stop and scrambled onto his cot, his hands once against pressed against the wall. They were slick and coated in sweat, but that was the least of his worries.

“Tyler, you okay?”

He coughed loudly and shifted onto his knees before glancing over at Josh’s worried face. Tyler’s face scrunched up in discomfort and he grunted. “Yeah, I’m okay. A little sore.” his hand flew out to sooth the ghost pain still in his thigh.

A wave of relief passed through Josh’s body. “Oh thank god, I thought I had been too late. I’m so sorry, I’m so fucking sorry-”

“Don’t start apologizing. In no way was this your fault Josh. If anything, it was mine for telling you to pretend we were in fuckin’ Vegas.” He scoffed. “If I hadn’t distracted you-”

“I needed a distraction. You were right. We both needed one.” Josh let out a loud sigh and let his body slump forward. He let one hand remain resting on the glass and smiled a little when Tyler put his up on the other side. “I don’t know how we’re going to get out of here now, Tyler.”

“We’ll find a way. Even if it takes awhile. He didn’t take you from me. He could have, but he didn’t.”

“I want this damn thing out of my head.”

Tyler clucked his tongue. “Virgil could have been lying, but he said you’d die if they took that thing out of your head. I don’t think that’s true. If most, you’d be blind again.”

Josh shrugged. “I was blind for all my life. I think I can survive being blind again.”

“But... You can see now. You’re a miracle-”

“I’m not a fucking miracle. He kidnapped me out of my home, put some alien bullshit in my head, and fucking turned me into a brainwashed soldier. My sight wasn’t a gift. It was a curse.” Josh pulled his hand away from the glass and dropped it into his lap. “Virgil has me wrapped around his little finger. He snaps just once, and I can turn at any second. If we try and escape, he can rope me back in. He can rope  _ us _ back in. That terrifies me.”

“Then we have to outsmart him. We have time. We’re both strong enough to last a few more weeks.”

Josh huffed. “Weeks. Fucking weeks.” he leaned his head back against the glass. “I won’t survive here much longer. I’m already broken from the first time.”

“I know Josh. But you gotta be strong. For me. Can you do that?” Josh nodded. He had to. “Good. Look dude, I gotta tell you about this weird thing that happened. When I was about to pass out, the room was spinning, and it kept, like glitching, I guess. The colours turned drabber, more drearier, and Virgil, his skin turned grey, and his face was blurry. He almost looked faceless, I guess.”

That caught Josh’s attention. He whipped back around to face Tyler, his eyes growing wide. “What?”

“Yeah exactly. I think I was delirious from all the blood loss. Maybe it was because I was having some kind of near death experience-”

“No dude, the aliens, they were faceless. They looked human, but I could never recognize their faces, they were always blurred out.” his brow furrowed together. “You don’t have an implant installed, which means they can’t stick information in your head. You can’t make that shit up.” Josh was up and pacing now, running his hands hurriedly through his mess of brown hair. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Tyler shrugged, “I thought you’d wanna know is all.”

“Fuck. Can you do it again?” He swung around and stared at Tyler’s confused expression.

“You want me to have another near death experience?”

“No, no, definitely not, I just want to know if you could see that again.”

“I dunno how I’d do that.”

Josh clapped his hands together. “Tomorrow, when they come for us. I don’t know what Virgil is going to do, but if you can be on the bridge of death again, maybe, just maybe-”

“I don’t want to almost die again.”

“This might be the only way to get some more information.” Josh pleaded with him. “Please Ty. I promise, whatever ends up happening, I’ll be there to stop him before things get too bad. You trust me, right?”

“Of course.”

The conversation ended there. Josh went back to doing situps, peeling his shirt off his sticky body and tossing it to the side before laying down on cold stone. Tyler laid down on his cot and strung his fingers across his chest. He started singing again, this time quietly to himself. It was another Death Cab for Cutie song, and for some reason, pushed Josh harder.

He couldn’t spend another seven years in here.

-

They got the next couple of days to themselves with no interruptions. Josh figured Virgil was planning something, which of course was a scary thought, but this time, they’d be prepared for whatever was thrown their way.

They both cleaned all the blood off their bodies, which was a tedious process when all you had was a stream and your hands. Josh caught Tyler debating on whether or not to use his shirt as a washcloth, but he seemed to decide that wasn’t the best idea and tossed it behind him. They were both pretty quiet those couple of days too, silence that wasn’t terrible, but peaceful. Neither needed to talk to understand what the other was feeling.

When Virgil was finally ready for them again, William and Andrew pulled the tired, weak men from their cells and dragged them down the all too familiar hallway. This time though, Tyler was placed inside the glass chamber, the one Josh had almost drowned in, while Josh was sat parallel to him and restrained. The room always seemed to change one way or another, but at least they could always count on it being a death trap.

Josh started panicking. He could guess what Virgil was going to do to Tyler, and Tyler didn’t have any powers to allow himself access to oxygen. If Josh didn’t act fast enough, Tyler would die.

He could act fast though, he knew that. Josh could be out of his cuffs in just a few minutes once Virgil left the room.

“Boys, today we’re going swimming!” Virgil clapped his hands together and grinned as William and Andrew moved towards the back of the room. He had his silver laser pointer in his hand, and for a split second Josh wondered if Virgil was going to put him into ‘OBEY’ mode. “Joshua, I want to see just what you can do when someone else is placed in your shoes. I think there’s a quote about that. What is it? ‘You never really know a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb in his skin and walk around in it?’ Yeah, I think that’s the quote. And just think, you already got to see so much of Tyler, that this is no biggy, right?”

Tyler looked terrified. Josh stared.

“So, I’ll leave you to it. I’d hurry thought Joshua. Tyler’s only got about three minutes before he won’t be able to breathe no more.” His grin morphed into a smirk as water instantly began filling the tank, sloshing against Tyler’s ankles. Tyler started panicking, and Josh’s fingers tapped rapidly. He knew that feeling of panic, but he’d get Tyler out safe and sound. They just needed to wait, so Tyler could see more into this “glitch” he kept talking about...

The second Virgil left to go watch from the control room, Josh was tearing out of his restraints and moving towards the chamber. He grasped at the side he remembered the door being on and pulled with all his strength, but it didn’t budge.

The water was to Tyler’s knees. “Josh-”

“I’m trying, I’m trying,” he cut him off, running his hands through his hair. Josh circled the tank one more time, trying to figure out what he could do. If he pushed it over, there would be no guarantee the water would stop, and it didn’t even seem like the tank would budge in the first place.

Now to his chest, Tyler was jerking so hard Josh could see where his cuffs had dug into his skin. “Josh, please,  _ please-” _

“I said I’m fucking trying!” Josh took a deep breath. He just needed to break it, that was all. He needed to think about Tyler dying, Tyler drowning, all because Josh was too slow to save him. Josh could save him, he knew he could save him.

Tyler took one last deep breath, his chin stretched as far up as it could go, before the water swallowed him whole. He stared at Josh with wide eyes and took matters into his own hands, trying to break the glass with his feet. His chest burned and his lungs felt like they were shrinking. Josh rested his hand against the glass, and there was a shrill  _ clink _ as the entire tank shattered, tiny pieces of glass mixing in with the roaring water as it plummeted to the ground. Tyler tilted his head up as he gasped for air. The room around him blinked between bright and dreary, almost like he was watching a TV signal fizzle out. He tried to catch his breath, his eyes closed, as the world spun around him.

Then it hit him: Tyler couldn’t hear Josh anymore.

His eyes flew open. Tyler looked around the empty room in confusion. The room was small and silver; there was no evidence of any glass tanks, or metal operating tables, or any Josh’s, or even Will or Andrew. His heart sped up.

“Josh?” He called out, and silence was his reply. Tyler stood up and spun in a circle. There wasn’t even a door. “Josh?”

“Tyler!” He was jerked back into reality by Josh’s calloused hand. Tyler let Josh pull him into a hug (he didn’t even care that Tyler was sopping wet) and let his blood pound in his ears as he tried to figure out what the hell had happened. What was going on? Was he going insane? 

Josh’s hand rested on the small of his back and he pressed a kiss to Tyler’s jaw. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m, I’m fine,” Tyler lied. He’d talk to Josh about it later. He knew Josh would want information.

“Well Joshua, I’m quite impressed. It seems there really isn’t anything you can’t do!” Virgil let out a loud, bitter laugh. “You guys may have the rest of the day to yourselves. I need time to put everything together before we begin the big finale tomorrow.”

“Finale?” Tyler asked, turning to look at Josh. Josh shrugged, but there was panic in his eyes. If the experiments they were forced to participate in was any indication of what was to come, then they were in for a nasty surprise.

-

William and Andrew dragged them back to their cells. Josh laid on his cot and stared up at the ceiling with his hands strung over his chest. Tyler peeled off his wet clothes and laid on the stone floor, his hand fluttering over his heart as he breathed in and out. No matter what he did, his heartbeat wouldn’t slow down. He felt sick to his stomach with anxiety.

“I’m sorry,” Josh said out loud, breaking the silence that had been building between the two of them for the past ten minutes. “I never wanted it to get that bad, I just thought, maybe we could get some more information. It was so stupid to think that.” he scoffed. “You almost died.”

“I’m okay,” Tyler promised, propping himself up on his elbow. With nothing to dry himself off with, he was forced to air dry, his skin still shining under the florescent lights. “It happened again, the glitch.”

“Really?” Josh sat up and pressed his hands to the glass so he could see Tyler. “What happened?”

“Same as last time, the colours changed. But this time, the room was different. It was compact, with silver walls and a silver floor, and no door. You weren’t there, and neither was anything else. It was just me.”

“Maybe Virgil did something to you when you were in the infirmary,” Josh offered up an idea. “That’s the only thing I can think of.”

“Or maybe I’m going crazy.” Tyler shook his head. “I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

“Think about it. You’ve had two near-death experiences, and both times caused you to hallucinate. I don’t think you’d see the same things just by chance, you know? Plus, your description of Virgil, being grey and faceless, that causes some suspicions to rise. Just because of what I had been told previously. I feel like he did something to you.”

“Maybe.” Tyler pulled himself up onto his cot and sat cross-legged. Josh tried to avoid looking at the collection of scars he was starting to develop. He pressed his hand against the wall, right against Josh’s, and sighed. “I’m scared dude.”

“Hey, remember what you told me? We’re gonna get out of here. We’re both strong. Remember that?”

“Yeah.”

“Tyler, look at me.” Josh waited for Tyler’s eyes to flicker up to his face and then smiled softly. “You’re beautiful, you know that?”

Tyler blushed. “Shut up dude.”

“I’m serious. You are. I’ve thought about that since the day I saw you mowing your lawn.” Josh gestured to Tyler’s tattoos. “Do those mean something?”

“Faith,” Tyler said quietly. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from Josh’s eyes now. 

“Faith. So you have faith we’re gonna get out of here?”

“Yeah, of course I do.”

“That settles it then.” Josh let his hands fall into his lap. “We’re getting out of here. And we won’t stop fighting until this place is under police investigation.”

Tyler leaned forward just enough for his nose to press against the glass, and a smile of his own rose to his lips when Josh did the same thing. Although they weren’t touching, a sense of tranquility fell over the two of them. No matter what Virgil did, they weren’t going to be separated. In fact, it was only gonna make them stronger. No matter what, they were getting out.

-

**_Automatic System Failure._ **

Tyler’s back arched off the table as he gasped for air. With wide eyes, he glanced around the dark room as he tried to figure out what was going on.

For one, he was completely naked, with about five different tubes and wires attached to different parts of his body. He recognized what appeared to be an IV in the top of his right hand, but not any of the other medical stuff. One might have possibly been some sort of feeding tube.

Two, the room looked similar to the one he and Josh had been in; he recognized the stone walls and stone floors, but there were no glass cages, only two silver operating tables, one for him, and another for an unknown man. Tyler rubbed at his pounding head and turned his attention to a bright red screen placed in front of him. Across the screen were the words  _ Automatic System Failure, _ with an unknown language placed directly below it.  _ What the hell? _

Next to his screen was one playing some kind of video. It seemed to be through someone else’s eyes, because they were looked directly at Tyler, their hand pressed up against the wall of their cell. What was this, some sort of simulation? Was the man dreaming? Why was he looking at Tyler?

He finally turned towards the man on his left side. His hair was bright yellow and shaved on the sides, and just like Tyler, he was naked. He had a nose ring too, and gauges.

The minute Tyler’s eyes draped across the tattoo sleeve of a tree, Tyler knew who it was. Josh.

And he remembered. He remembered everything.

Tyler had absolutely no idea who Josh Dun was.


	8. Simulation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things are never as they seem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here it is, the last chapter! Thank you all for reading!

The bell chimed seven times, alerting morning time, but Josh had already been awake for about an hour. The thing was, he had woken up fearful for what was going to happen today, fearful for what was going to become of him and what would happen to Tyler. Would he be officially be made into one of Virgil’s brainwashed soldiers, sent out to scout out more hopeless people for him to use in his experiments? Would Tyler be next?

The whole thing made his stomach clench.

Soft groans were coming from the other side of the wall as Tyler sat up and stretched. Josh rolled onto his side to watch him through the glass.

“Good morning,” he said. Tyler smiled.

“Hey.”

“Today’s the day.”

“Yeah. Today’s the day.” Tyler laid back down and stared up at the ceiling. “I had the strangest dream last night. I can’t remember it very well, but it was weird.”

Josh sighed. “Tyler,”

“All I remember is the room really, everything was silver, and there was some beeping-”

“Tyler!” he shouted this time, pounding a fist against the glass. “Stop talking about your dream. Please. Look, today, whatever happens today, it’s not going to be good.”

“I don’t care what happens anymore Josh.”

“What? How can you not care?”

“Because it’s the same shit that happens everyday. We’ve been here almost two weeks now dude, and we aren’t any closer to getting out. I know we will someday, but it’s going to take time. So until then, we just have to be patient. You gotta learn how to get a hold on your powers and use them outside of being angry or horny.” Tyler huffed. “You’re right, whatever happens today, it’s not going to be good, but we can’t do anything about it. What happens, happens.”

“What if he takes me away? Makes me one of his brainwashed soldiers?”

“Then I’m left alone.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “What the fuck happened to you overnight dude?”

“What are you talking about?” Josh didn’t understand how Tyler was so calm about the situation they were about to be thrown into. Bad things were going to happen any time now and Tyler  _ didn’t even care. _

“Last night, you were terrified, remember that? Nothing was going to separate us, not even Virgil. What happened to that Tyler?”

“I’m right here...?” Tyler shrugged his shoulders in confusion. “I don’t know why you’re freaking out Josh. Everything is okay.”

“Everything is NOT okay!” Josh threw his hands up into the air. “One of us could die! I could lose my life, the life I just got back, and you, fucking, you Tyler, you could be next!” Josh ran his fingers through his hair and began pacing. His stomach tightened, and god, he felt like he was going to puke again-

“Josh, love, come here.” Tyler gently placed his hand on the glass. “He might separate us, but that’s okay. Because at the end of the day, we’ll be right back here. And tomorrow. And the next day, and the next day.”

Josh growled. “I am not spending another seven years here. I’m going to fight until I can’t fight anymore. For some reason, I thought you’d be the same way.” He turned away from Tyler and stepped in front of the sliding glass door, where he knew Andrew and William would come for him shortly. He could see the hazy lights flickering over the winding grey hallway Josh knew he’d be pulled down any second. Josh was beyond furious.

“FUCK!” he screamed as he punched the fiberglass, his hand crumpling. The pain didn’t bother him, and he went back to attacking the wall, punching, kicking, slapping, until the fight drained away from him. Josh was sick. He was falling apart and he knew it, because this place was getting to him again. Two weeks was enough time for this place to get inside his head, for Virgil to punish him, for Tyler to give up all hope.

Maybe Tyler was right. Maybe there was no point in fighting. After all, they would end up back at square one, no matter what.

Josh moved back towards the cot and dropped down, shoving his head into hands. His whole body throbbed with a dull ache.

“Josh,” Tyler said softly. “We’re gonna be okay.”

Josh didn’t believe him.

-

Andrew and William came shortly after the bell signaled morning time. They pulled Tyler and Josh out of their cells, pulled their hands behind their backs, and pushed them down the hallway, back to the dining hall where Tyler had almost gotten an arrow to the forehead. They had a brief second to themselves when “security” disappeared.

Immediately Josh pulled Tyler into a hug. “Whatever happens, I’m thankful, for everything you’ve done for me.”

“We’re going to be okay,” Tyler whispered again. He pulled his head back just enough to look Josh in the eyes, and next thing he knew, they were kissing, their touches desperate and all over the place, knowing they wouldn’t get another chance like this in a long time. Josh’s hands pushed under Tyler’s shirt; Tyler dug his fingers into Josh’s long hair.

“Thank you,” Josh breathed, and just like that, they were pulled apart, and thrust into solid metal chairs with tight leather straps over their wrists. Neither one of them bothered to fight as Virgil entered the room, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Hello boys.” He seemed quite cheerful. “Well, I’ve gathered up all the data I needed, and it seems like you Joshua, would make the most perfect candidate for my results. I can finally take my invention to bigger and better places, and you’re going to be my model.”

“No one is going to use your product,” Josh spat, “Not when it’s fucking unethical.”

“You’d be surprised Joshua. The government would certainly have a use for it. Think about how easy it would be to send young boys over sea when they don’t have to worry about senses or emotions. They wouldn’t even have to think. They could go over and kill so easily. That’s one of the biggest problems today, y’know. Wars start, and young boys decide the enemy’s life is worth more than theirs. They get killed instead of doing the killing. Not only that, but this could work so well for doctors. They could save money on drugs and do something so much better with it.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Tyler finally spoke up, which was surprising to Josh, “Emotions are what make us human. You can’t just rip those away from people. Wars are wrong anyways, think about how many innocent people are killed! And what if your implants fail? What if one of these so called soldiers goes haywire? What will you do to stop it?”

“You were never supposed to be here in the first place,” Virgil took one large stride over to Tyler to grab his shirt collar. “You don’t get to speak.”

“Oh fuck you,” Tyler rolled his eyes, “I was your fucking guinea pig. Sure Josh had the powers, but I was the one whose body was ripped to shreds. I’ll talk all I want to. Besides, I’m next for that implant, right? So I can be another one of your brainwashed soldiers?”

“Shut up,” Virgil growled, his eyes lighting up in fury. “You are  _ nothing.” _

“Sure doesn’t seem that way. You’re fucking evil. Look around you. Look what you’ve done. You’ve ruined lives, you’ve ruined families, and Josh, god, the trauma you put him through-”

“That’s ENOUGH! I’m not going to listen to you.” 

It all happened so fast, what happened next. Suddenly Virgil was grabbing ahold of Tyler’s shoulder and plunging a knife into his heart, a knife so big Josh couldn’t comprehend where he had gotten it from. Tyler didn’t even have time to scream as blood soaked into his shirt, like it had been red the whole time instead of white.

Josh, he screamed. He screamed louder than he had ever screamed in his entire life watching the life drain away from Tyler’s eyes. He was dead. He was fucking dead and it was all Josh’s fault.

“That’s better,” Virgil grinned, wiping his blood stained hands on his pants, “He was getting rather annoying, don’t you think?”

“You killed him,” Josh couldn’t move. “You fucking killed him.”

“It’s you and me now, Joshua. We’re going to change the world.” Virgil clicked the button on his silver laser pointer, and Josh’s eyes turned white.

**_Game Over._ **

-

The first thing he noticed was how fucking  _ cold _ it was. Tyler rubbed at his head as he sat up and looked around at all the silver.

He remembered this place from the first time. Why was he back here again?

_ What the hell? _

Tyler looked up at the screen in front of him to see that it was green instead of red like last time, the words  _ Simulation Over _ blinking brightly in white. Below it, was that same weird language that honestly just looked like a bunch of strange symbols. Okay, so it wasn’t system failure this time. Was this supposed to be happening?

He was confused. Where the hell was he? What was going on?

Josh was still next to him, his screen still playing what he was seeing at the moment. He was still in the simulation, and Tyler got lost for a few seconds watching Josh, with his eerie white eyes, bring in two scared boys and toss them into their own glass cages. That had been them only days ago.

Wait. No it hadn’t, because that hadn’t been real. None of that had been real.

Thing was, Tyler couldn’t remember when it had started being  _ not _ real. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to figure that out quite yet. There were more pressing matters to attend to.

With a sigh, Tyler began pulling out all the wires and tubes attached to him, grimacing with each one, and jumped off the table, his legs immediately crumbling out from underneath him. He grasped the table with a shaky hand and pulled himself up slowly, the muscles in his legs straining painfully. Okay, so he had been here a very long time, long enough that he couldn’t walk very well. Good to know.

His hands hovered over Josh’s unconscious form briefly before he decided to yank everything off of the yellow haired man. His screen too turned bright green, flashing  _ Simulation Over,  _ like they were supposed to know exactly what that meant.

Josh sat up so fast he knocked the wind out of himself and gasped for oxygen like he hadn’t had any in years. Tyler watched him curiously, his knuckles starting to turn white from how hard he was holding the edge of the table.

“What the fuck,” Josh whispered as he glanced around the room, his voice hoarse from disuse, “Where am I?” he turned towards Tyler. “Who are you?”

“It’s me Josh,” Tyler replied, his eyes wide. Everything was so weird. “It’s Tyler.”

“Tyler? Tyler who?” He rubbed at his head with his fingers. “Oh.  _ Oh. _ Tyler. Tyler from, from-”

“Yeah. Dude, we’ve never met before.”

“That wasn’t real,” Josh said to himself. “None of that was real.” He looked back over at Tyler, really trying to get a good look at him. “You look the same.”

Tyler snorted. “Your hair is bright yellow.”

Josh smiled, and it made Tyler’s heart flutter just as it had in the simulation. That’s what it had been, he realized. A simulation with the purpose to see how humans would react when put in tough situations. They had told the two of them that, somehow. He realized where he was now too. “You never went to high school with me.”

“That’d be a little hard, considering I was homeschooled.”

Josh chuckled a little as he swung his legs over the edge and carefully stood up. His legs didn’t crumple like Tyler’s had, but they still shook unnervingly. “I’m not even blind. Dude, what the fuck?”

“We were stolen from our homes,” Tyler remembered out loud. “For a few days, we were in holding cells. We never talked, I think you were right across from me.”

“Right,” Josh was remembering too, “It’s 2017, not 2011. Oh my god.”

“Silver-blue light. Aliens. We were taken by aliens.”

“They wanted to study us,” Josh looked down at his mutilated torso. Just like in the simulation, his stomach was littered in white scars and strange symbols. This time though, he wasn’t the only one with scars. Josh caught himself staring at Tyler’s stomach for a few moments. “They promised us we wouldn’t feel pain.”

“They put us in a simulation, so we wouldn’t feel them hurting us. Oh god, how long have we been up here?”

Josh’s throat clicked. “I have no clue.”

“We have to get out of here.” He made a move towards the door when an alarm went off. It was blaring and red lights danced around the room.  _ Fuck. _ They were screwed.

A sliding door amidst one silver wall hissed open, revealing two human like beings with grey skin and blurred faces. The two realized they had been seeing these creatures in the fake world they had created for their sole purpose. They wondered if that was on purpose.

Tyler’s first response was to fight, and he raised his fists, ready to strike. Josh on the other hand, backed away, his knees shaking and his grip tight on the edge of the table.

“Take us back,” Tyler demanded, his voice confident. Honestly, he was a little surprised by that. “You had your fun. Please.”

The two beings spoke in a way that almost sounded like hissing; it was almost impossible to figure out their emotions. Tyler shared a look of fear with Josh behind him.

And then, in perfect English, one of them spoke. “Okay. Thank you for your cooperation.” They reached out for Tyler’s shoulder, the other grabbing ahold of Josh’s arm, and everything went black.

-

Josh opened his eyes to the bright lights of a hospital room, his mother right by his side. Her face was twisted in worry and it looked like she had been crying within the past hour. It made his heart hurt.

“Josh, baby, take it slow. You don’t want to hurt yourself.”

“What happened?” he blinked rapidly and looked down at his right arm, which was in a sling and throbbed uncomfortably.

“You were in a car accident sweetheart. Nothing was too serious, you got the worst end of the stick. The other guy hit you. You broke your arm and passed out. They put you in a bed just to be sure you were okay.”

Josh nodded his head. He had an IV in his other arm and a shudder moved down his spine as he thought about his bare back against cold stainless steel, with an IV slipped into the top of his hand. He knew he hadn’t been in a car accident.

“The other guy, was his name Tyler?”

“Why yes actually. How’d you know that?”

“Lucky guess,” Josh responded dryly. “Mom, have I...” he had no clue how to ask this question, “have I been gone for like, a long period of time?”

She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think so. You called me after you got off work, said you were going to the bar with some friends.”

Josh rubbed at his head. None of this made any sense.

“I still work at Guitar Center, right?”

“Josh, did you hit your head? Does your head hurt? I should go talk to the doctor, I’m worried you may have a concussion.” She patted his knee and stood up, already on her way to the door despite Josh’s grumbles. He knew he didn’t have a concussion, but that didn’t stop her.

A minute later, his mother came back. “Well, they said you seemed fine, but I think we should get it checked just in case-”

“Mom, I’m fine. I promise. My head doesn’t hurt, I’m just a bit scatterbrained at the moment. The guy that hit me, is he still here?”

“He might be. I think he was getting treated for a few broken ribs. Oh!” she jumped up and reached for her purse, “He left a phone number. Would you like to call?”

“I’d like that,” Josh nodded, accepting the phone his mother handed him. He didn’t bother asking where his was. Nothing made any sense at the moment.

The line rang three times before Tyler’s familiar voice came over the end. Josh sighed in relief. 

“Hello?”

“Hey Tyler, it’s me.” a pause. “Josh.”

“Oh my god, Josh. Like, from-”

“Yeah. Exactly. Look, could we get together sometime to talk about-” he glanced up at his mother who was staring at him curiously. “Insurance stuff. Since we, uhm, got into a car accident.”

“Oh right.” Tyler seemed to get the hint. “We could go get coffee later tonight?”

Josh smiled. He remembered, way back when Tyler said he’d take him out for coffee. They had never gotten around to that.

But, oh, right. That hadn’t been real. 

The thing was, it had  _ felt so real. _ And the fact that Josh knew absolutely nothing about the real Tyler was very irritating to him. He’d have to “reintroduce” himself.

He wondered if “Simulation Tyler” shared any traits with Real Tyler.

Josh pulled the phone away from his ear, “Mom, will I be out of the hospital by tonight?”

“Yes, we could probably go check you out now, if you’re feeling any better. They just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m okay, promise,” Josh replied, flashing a smile smile before he returned to his phone call with Tyler. “Hey, you still there?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll go get coffee with you.”

“Finally,” he said, his voice softer this time. “It’ll be good to see you. The real you.”

“Yeah.” Josh let his fingers curl in the rough blanket draped across him and cleared his throat. “So uhm, like, six maybe?”

“Sure. Six. Is this your phone?”

“No. Uhm, you wanna do the one downtown, like-”

“I know what you’re talking about,” Tyler sounded pretty confident, so Josh felt like he didn’t need to say anything else. “Six.”

“Six.” he nodded his head, and the phone call ended there. Josh handed the phone back to his mother, who was still staring at him. He was sure she was worried. “I’m just going to get coffee with him Mom. We’re gonna talk about uh, insurance stuff. You know, usual stuff.”

“You know you have to come back so they can put your broken arm in a cast. And no drumming for six weeks mister, I don’t want it getting worse.”

“Okay mother, jeez. I understand.” he took a moment to look at her. She was the same person she had been in the simulation, he knew that, and he knew that he hadn’t been gone long enough for him  _ to _ miss her, but he did. He missed her a whole lot. Because being trapped in that thing had seemed like ages.

He really hoped Tyler would have some answers.

“Mom,” he called out for her, reaching his good arm around her waist to pull her closer, “I love you, you know that?”

“Of course I do Joshua. I love you too.” She planted a kiss to his head and stood up. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ll go sign your release papers so we can go home, okay? You’re kind of out a car for a little while until the insurance companies can figure out some stuff, but I’m sure they give you a rental. For now, would it be easier for you to come back to our house?”

“Yeah,” Josh nodded. “That’d work.”

“Okay sweetheart. I’ll be right back.”

Josh leaned back against his stiff pillow and sighed. Man, he  _ really _ hoped Tyler would have some answers.

-

After ordering his caramel macchiato, Josh scanned the small cafe for Tyler until he found him sitting in the back corner. Tyler looked up from his coffee and smiled, his eyes twinkling. He had a bruise on his jaw and another one right above his right eyebrow.

“Hello,” he said softly as Josh slid into the chair across from him and adjusted his sling so his broken arm was in a much more comfortable position. “Shit, you broke your arm?”

“I guess.” Josh shrugged. “It’s really good to see you though.”

“Agreed.” Tyler cleared his throat, pulling his cup closer towards himself. “So I feel like we should probably figure out what was a lie and what’s truth.”

“Right. Do you have the same name?”

“Yep. You?”

“Yeah. And I guess it’s safe to assume we’re both from Columbus?”

“Born and raised,” Tyler grinned again. “So, obviously, you aren’t blind. What do you do for a living? Did you go to college?”

“I’m a drummer,” he started, picking at the cardboard sleeve around his coffee cup with his fingernail, “and I work at Guitar Center. So, nothing too exciting. And nope, no college.”

“I’m a dropout, which you know, pissed my parents off a bit, but I started making my own music. Recording tracks, figuring out notes, writing lyrics. That kind of stuff.”

“I guess musicians tend to gravitate towards one another, huh?” he pretended not to notice the blush spreading across Tyler’s cheeks.

“I could always use a drummer.”

Now Josh was blushing too. It was weird, all of this, because even though he had never met Tyler before, and even though that simulation the two had been stuck in hadn’t been real, Josh felt like he had known Tyler for years and years. He felt comfortable around him. And as much as he wanted to continue talking about their lives now, they needed to face the facts.

“Dude, we were kidnapped by aliens.”

Tyler let out a deep breath, like he had been holding it for hours. “Dude, I know. I knew it wasn’t a stupid car accident.”

“And we haven’t been gone like, any time at all. My Mom said she saw me just yesterday. How is that even possible? How is any of this possible?”

“Okay, maybe, we weren’t in space, but like, a different dimension? That would explain the time jump.”

Josh rubbed at his face. “But  _ how _ did we get there? It’s all fuzzy. And why us? Why not two other random strangers?”

“Fate works in mysterious ways,” Tyler shrugged. “We were the chosen ones I guess.”

“Do you still have all your scars?”

“Yep. You?”

“Yep.” Josh sighed. All of this hurt his head. “No one is ever going to believe us.”

“Some things are better left unsaid.” Tyler stared at him for a few seconds, his breathing quiet and short. Josh looked up to meet his eyes as he chewed on the inside of his cheek. 

“So that’s it?” Josh asked, sighing. “I mean, we just, we forget about this?”

“I don’t know what else we could do. It’s our word against everyone else’s. Maybe it is good to put this all behind us, you know? We can move on with our lives.”

Josh sighed again. “Okay. I guess that’s true. I guess that’s for the best.”

“I have to agree with you there.” Tyler rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand tiredly. “Dude, we had sex. I mean, not really, but-”

“I know,” Josh interrupted, “I know.”

Shyly, Tyler said, “I wouldn’t mind doing that again. Like...”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t either.”

A grin found its way back onto Tyler’s face. “Okay. Yeah. Like, we weren’t really ever together, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start new, right? I mean, we technically do know each other-”

“And I feel like we’ve known each other for years-”

“So we could totally do this, right? This relationship thing?”

“We’d probably have to take things a little slow, you know, for our parents sake. I’m sure finding out your son is dating the guy you got into a ‘car accident’ with is a little eh.”

Tyler clucked his tongue. “Okay, right. Since they’re probably worried about our well being with that terrible horrible car accident.” he rolled his eyes. “So tomorrow night then, I’ll take you out on a date.”

“Oh?” Josh cocked an eyebrow and leaned back into his seat.

“Really. You remember when we talked about staying up as late as possible and eating all kinds of junk food? We could totally do that. We could build a fort.”

“Tyler Joseph, you really know the way to a guy’s heart.” he said teasingly. “Although the sex might have to wait until I have full access to both my arms first.”

Tyler scoffed. “You don’t need both your arms for me to blow you.”

“Jesus dude.” is what Josh said, but  _ fuck yes _ is what he thought. Okay, yeah, they could make this work.

“Listen,” Tyler leaned forward and nudged Josh’s coffee cup out of the way, “Would you wanna like, go to my car and... make out?”

“Okay,” Josh nodded as he followed Tyler up and out of Starbucks. The two had been through a helluva lot together and Josh was sure their would be more to come, but this, this could work. He was willing to make this work.

“Josh,” Tyler mumbled against Josh’s neck, his fingers splayed across the soft skin under Josh’s tee, “I like you. I  _ really _ like you.”

“I like you too,” Josh said back, tilting his chin up and swallowing down a moan, “I really like you too.” The heat between them made Josh feel safe. Nothing was going to come between the two of them ever again.

“Don’t let go of me,” Tyler whispered, and Josh found his grip on Tyler tightening. No, he wasn’t going to let go. Not again.

“Never.”


End file.
